United Biscuits was days away from an IPO announcement when it decided to accept an offer from Turkey's largest food group last weekend. With it, the flavour for M&A-led dual track exits might have returned.

The decision by Blackstone and PAI Partners to plump for a sale to Yildiz Holdings at the final hour - United Biscuits had initially planned to announce its initital public offering on November 10, and had scheduled a board meeting to discuss the float this week - ended the process for what would have been one of the largest floats in the UK this year.