Canadian bakery giant George Weston Ltd is understood to be exploring a takeover bid for Aryzta, the Swiss-Irish speciality bakery company best known for its Cuisine de France brand.

A number of media reports in the last week have linked the Toronto-based bakery company with a takeover approach for Aryzta, although no formal offer has yet been made.

At the same time, two private equity groups, Apollo Global Management and Cerberus Capital, are also reported to be interested in Aryzta. Shares in Aryzta rallied 3% last week on the back of the media reports. Last month, Aryzta chair Gary McGann confirmed that several parties had made unsolicited takeover approaches for the company and that the board was exploring all potential offers.

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Meanwhile, Aryzta’s chief financial officer Frederic Pflanz has informed the Aryzta board he will step down as group CFO in December, to take up a new role in an unrelated business. Pflanz has served as Aryzta CFO since 2017, when he joined the company from German company, Maxingvest Group.