The company behind frozen food business Birds Eye has been put up for sale with a price tag of up to �2.5 billion, according to reports.

The auction of Iglo Group, which is Europe's largest frozen food company, follows a number of approaches to its private equity owner Permira.

It bought Iglo for 1.7 billion euro (�1.4 billion) in 2006 from Unilever and expanded the business by buying Findus Italy for 800 million euro (�669 million) in 2010.

Buy-out rivals such as Blackstone, BC Partners and Cinven are likely to participate in the auction, the Sunday Telegraph said.

Iglo makes pea, poultry and potato waffle products at Lowestoft, Suffolk, and has operations at Bremerhaven and Reken in Germany and Cisterna in Italy.

It is run by Martin Glenn, who is credited with revitalising the Walkers crisps brand in his time at PepsiCo.

Iglo sales in 2011 are thought to have beaten the 1.1 billion euro (�920 million) recorded the previous year, helped by the targeting of new markets such as Russia and Turkey.