The private equity backer of Motor Fuel Group (MFG), one of Britain’s biggest petrol forecourt empires, is exploring the sale of a stake in a deal that could value it at about £7bn.

Sky News has learnt that Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CDR), which has built MFG from a mid-sized industry player over the course of more than a decade, is working with advisers to examine options for selling a large minority shareholding.

City sources said this weekend that CD&R was expected to run a process during the coming months, with a deal anticipated later this year.

A stake of roughly 25-30% is expected to change hands, although the final shape of any deal has yet to be determined.

A so-called continuation vehicle common in private equity transactions is understood to have been ruled out by CD&R.

MFG is now the largest independent forecourt operator in the UK, having grown from 360 sites at the point of CD&R’s acquisition of the company.

It trades under a number of brands, including Esso and Shell.

Lazard, the investment bank, has been working with CD&R on the preparatory work for a minority sale.

CD&R, which also owns Morrisons, united MFG’s petrol forecourt businesses with that of the supermarket chain in a £2.5bn transaction which completed last year.

MFG now comprises roughly 1,200 sites across Britain, with pro forma earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of about £700m expected in this financial year.

A previous attempt by CD&R to sell the company in 2022 was derailed in part by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and a deteriorating macroeconomic environment.

It is now focused on its role in the energy transition, with hundreds of electric vehicle charging points installed across its network, and growing its high-margin foodservice offering.

MFG has outlined plans to invest £400m in EV charging, and is now the second-largest Ultra Rapid player in the UK – which delivers 100 miles of range in 10 minutes – with close to 1,000 chargers.

It aims to grow that figure to 3,000 by 2030.

Insiders said that CD&R would retain a controlling stake in MFG after any stake sale, while Morrisons also holds a 20% interest in the company.

Bankers believe that a minority sale this year would be followed a couple of years later with an initial public offering on the London stock market.

CD&R invested in MFG in 2015, making its investment a long-term one by the standards of most private equity holding periods.

The sale of a 25% stake at a £7bn enterprise valuation would deliver a meaningful amount of liquidity to the US-based buyout firm.

CD&R and its investors have already been paid hundreds of millions of pounds in dividends from MFG, having seen its earnings grow 14-fold since the original purchase.

Morrisons’ rival, Asda, has undertaken a similar transaction, with EG Group acquiring the Leeds-based grocer’s forecourt network.

EG Group, which along with Asda is controlled by private equity firm TDR Capital, is now being prepared for a listing in the US.

CD&R declined to comment on Saturday.

The number of first-time buyers rose by almost a fifth last year, according to data from Halifax.

The bank said 2024 saw 341,068 people buy their first properties, up by 19% from 2023.

While the figures are a rebound from 2023’s 22% drop, they are not as high as they were in 2022.

That year saw 367,870 first-time buyers recorded.

Amanda Bryden, head of mortgages at the bank, said the rise “likely reflects an improvement in mortgage affordability as interest rates eased and stabilised, providing more certainty for those stepping on to the ladder”.

Earlier this month, the Bank of England cut interest rates to 4.5% – a drop of another quarter percentage point for the third period in a row.

Halifax said that on average, first-time buyers are 33 years old – two years older than they were a decade ago – and that the average deposit paid was £61,090 for a home typically valued at £311,034.

The bank also said that people stepping on to the property ladder accounted for more than half of all home purchases made with a mortgage last year, at 54%.

Ms Bryden added that “many are still teaming up to make the numbers work, with most buying homes jointly”, which “makes sense” given the average deposit and house price.

She said these prices “can be a stretch for those with a single income”, and that: “It’s not surprising the average first-time buyer is now 33 years old, the oldest in the last two decades.”

However, while Halifax expects “modest house price growth” this year, Ms Bryden said: “Upcoming stamp duty threshold reductions won’t make things any easier in the short term for first-time buyers.”

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Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her budget last year that the “nil rate” stamp duty band for first-time buyers will reduce from £425,000 to £300,000 from 1 April.

Halifax’s research was based on data from its own housing statistics database, as well as figures from trade association UK Finance and official earnings data.

Deep under the Bank of England, in a network of vaults into which cameras are rarely admitted, sits the world’s second biggest known trove of gold.

Once upon a time the Bank’s vaults stored bullion owned by the Crown but these days they serve mostly as a repository for other central banks and private banks that want to hold on to this critical asset.

But in recent weeks fears have been raised that the vaults are slowly being emptied – leading to other fears, that the Bank is struggling to keep up with the outflow. All of which raises a somewhat ominous question: is the Bank of England running out of gold?

Well, now the governor has told Sky News that there is no shortage of gold left inside the central bank’s vaults, though he acknowledged that billions of pounds of bullion had left and been flown across the Atlantic in recent months.

The movements are a symptom of a deeper financial issue. Traders are fretting about the possibility of Donald Trump imposing tariffs on movements of precious metals into the US. The pre-emptive trades have seen a sudden sharp rise in the amount of gold held in New York, not just from London but also from elsewhere around the world.

However, repatriating gold is no simple matter. Moving it in and out of vaults takes time, not to mention security, and the gold rush has led to a shortage of logistics options. Adding to the complexity is the fact that the Bank’s vaults are not really designed to cater for large-scale inflows and outflows – so simply getting bars isn’t easy.

Last week, deputy governor Dave Ramsden said: “Gold is a physical asset. So there are real logistical constraints and security constraints. It takes time and the stuff is also quite heavy, as you know.”

The upshot is there is a multi-week wait for anyone wanting to remove gold from the Bank, which in turn has pushed up the price of gold in London.

Talking to Sky News last week, Andrew Bailey said: “London is a very important gold market. We have seen a movement in the relative price of gold in London and New York in recent times. And that is causing some gold to be moved to New York. Not vast: it’s under 2% of our stock.

“Obviously you have to have a lot of security and a lot of insurance around moving gold. So you can’t just put it all on the back of a lorry and take it away. So it has to be planned.

“So there are constraints, because of physical constraints. But we’ve got slots for all the gold people want to move in and out.”

Asked where there was still plenty of gold left in the Bank of England, the governor said: “There’s still plenty of gold.”

Adrian Ash, director of research at precious metals marketplace BullionVault, said: “There is a shortage in London’s bullion market, but it’s a shortage of manpower and trucks. New York, in contrast, now has a glut of gold.

“This is a financial market phenomenon. It’s helped juice prices higher, but it hasn’t had any real impact on the availability of metal. And it will, most likely in due course, all come back out again.

“London remains the centre of the world’s gold trading and storage network. Short-term bottlenecks are nothing new, and they just to serve to highlight the underlying physical reality of the global gold market.

“Longer-term however, the Bank of England’s role as a custody for foreign central banks wanting to tap the London market may be dented. It’s already seen stockpiles edge lower in recent years, even amid a surge of emerging-market central bank buying, as reserves managers worry over sanctions and other political risks vis-à-vis the West versus the Rest.”