Burger King looks for a buyer

The company, which has a market value of about $2.3bn (1.5bn), has recently reported falling sales across the world.

Burger King has been in talks for several weeks with a number of potential buyers, including British company 3i Group, the Wall Street Journal claimed. 3i declined to comment.

The home of the Whopper and Chicken Royale last week reported a drop of 2.3 per cent in its global sales for its 2010 financial year, compared with a 1.2 per cent gain last year.

It also posted a 3.9 per cent fall in US and Canadian sales, compared with a 0.4 per cent increase in the same period last year.

The 55-year-old chain has been owned by buyout specialists before – it was bought from Diageo in 2002 by Texas Pacific, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs in a deal worth $1.5bn (950m).

The trio floated the Miami-based company four years later and still own just under a third of it.