SUPER NOODLES IN TANGLE OVER JAPANESE SELL-OFF

MR Kipling and Bisto owner Premier Foods could be on the verge of selling its Super Noodles and Cup a Soup brand Batchelors, worth an estimated £200m.

The group has been in talks with its biggest shareholder, Japanese noodle maker Nissin Foods, amid mounting pressures for the group to reduce its debt burden.

Premier has racked up £500m of debt and was forced to issue a profit warning last year. It served up losses of £1.2m for the six months to the end of September, a marked improvement on the £8.7m loss recorded for the same period last year.

Premier rejected a £537m takeover bid from US food manufacturer McCormick in 2016, opting instead for a tie up with Nissin, which owns 20pc of the group.

But Premier, which also owns the Ambrosia and Oxo brands, played down reports of the Batchelors sale.

A spokesman said: ‘There is no current situation where discussions have gone beyond an exploratory stage.’

Shares were up after the statement, rising 3.4pc, or 1.4p, 42.75p.