Eat, the sandwich bar chain, is preparing for a sale that could be worth up to £150m.

According to the Independent, the chain will choose a corporate advisor next month, with potential firms including KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and Deloitte.

Suitors thought to be interested include Advent International and Morgan Stanley Private Equity, who both lost out in their bids for Eat’s rival chain, Pret a Manger, to Bridgepoint.

Eat, which was formed in 1996 when it opened its first site in Villiers Street, London, now owns 85 outlets.