Safeway, the UK supermarket chain, is preparing for a cash offer with a deadline that might force it to either accept a new bid or gamble on how the competition authorities view rival proposals.

The company, which has been inundated with interested parties since it agreed a merger with rival Wm Morrison Supermarkets two weeks ago, is gearing up in case Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), the private equity firm, or Philip Green, the UK entrepreneur, make an offer with an expiry date.