US buyout firm Apollo Management has won board agreement to acquire Smart & Final, a US food warehouse store operator, bringing the total of potential deals announced in the European and US supermarket sector to more than $6.7bn (€5.1bn) in the last 24 hours.

Apollo's all-cash offer of $22 a share, which values the company at $813m including debt, was unanimously approved yesterday by Smart & Final's board of directors.