Chicken tycoon Ranjit Boparan in takeover talks

Black Country chicken tycoon Ranjit Boparan is considering a plan to launch a £300 million hostile bid for Northern Foods, the Goodfella's pizza and Fox's biscuit firm.

Mr Boparan, one of Tesco's biggest chicken suppliers and owner of the Harry Ramsden's and FishWorks chains, is now going through Northern's books after seeking access in a letter last Friday.

But Northern Foods said that Mr Boparan, who runs poultry processor the 2 Sisters Food Group based in West Bromwich, had not revealed his intentions or indicated any potential offer price. .

He is thought to be considering gatecrashing Northern's agreed all-share merger with Irish chilled foods firm Greencore, Britain's biggest sandwich maker.

The deal is due to create a new firm Essenta, with combined annual sales of £1.7 billion. Shareholders are due to vote on January 31.

Mr Boparan has been building up his shareholding in Northern Foods since the Greencore merger was announced in mid-November, from less than three per cent to 6.6 per cent.

The food millionaire now has access to the same financial information offered to Greencore, as is allowed under City takeover rules.

Mr Boparan made his name through the 2 Sisters Food Group and has now built an empire employing 6,000 people worldwide and combined annual sales of around £1 billion.

This includes fish and chip group Harry Ramsden's, which he snapped up in January after buying the FishWorks restaurant chain out of administration a year earlier.

However, his takeover ambitions for Northern Foods face potential sticking points, the main one being Northern's £142 million pension deficit.

It is thought a takeover by Mr Boparan would force Northern to go back to pension trustees to renegotiate annual funding payments, which could also be far higher than those agreed under the Greencore deal.

Both Northern Foods and Greencore today maintained confidence in their proposed merger despite the interest from Mr Boparan.