(Reuters) -Shares in Sainsbury’s jumped as much as 13% to a more than seven-year high on Monday after a report said private equity firms could launch bids worth more than 7 billion pounds ($9.6 billion) for Britain’s second-largest supermarket.

Private equity firms, including New York-based Apollo Global Management, were circling Sainsbury’s, the Sunday Times newspaper reported https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bidders-train-guns-on-sainsburys-sh8228nst.

The report comes as Morrisons, Britain’s fourth-largest grocer, is the subject of the most high-profile deal in Britain. Takeovers of British firms, led by U.S. firms, have hit a 14-year high by value in the first seven months of 2021.

The Sunday Times said Apollo’s interest in Sainsbury’s was exploratory and the private equity firm remained in talks to join the Fortress-led consortium bidding for Morrisons.

“If Apollo does not participate in Morrisons’ future then we cannot discount that the PE group nor other mega-finance houses will consider looking at Sainsbury,” Shore Capital analysts said, adding that Czech investor Daniel Kretinsky retained a roughly 10% stake in the company.

Sainsbury’s, with a market value of around 6.87 billion pounds, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Qatar sovereign fund is the London-based company’s largest shareholder, with almost 15% of Sainsbury’s voting rights.

Last week, Morrisons said its was backing CD&R’s 7 billion pound offer and dropped its previous recommendation for a 6.7 billion pound bid from a consortium led by SoftBank-owned Fortress Investment Group .

Shares in Morrisons were flat on Monday at 291 pence, above the level of the agreed proposal from CD&R indicating investors are expecting a counter bid from Fortress.

Last year, Apollo lost out on buying Asda, UK’s No. 3 grocer, to brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa and TDR Capital. That deal https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/apollo-global-management-considering-offer-britains-morrisons-2021-07-05 valued Asda at 6.8 billion pounds.

($1 = 0.7327 pounds)

(Reporting by Aditi Sebastian and Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair)