Two rival groups bidding for UK snacks maker United Biscuits have launched a joint bid for the company.

Finalrealm, a consortium which includes French food group Danone and three financial investors, have made a joint bid with rival Burlington Biscuits, an American consortium made up of snacks giant Nabisco and a Texan private equity giant, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst.

The offer, at �1.26bn, is identical to the last Finalrealm bid. The two groups have combined in order to avoid a bidding war.

Under the terms of the, Nabisco would hold 24.6% of the company, with Hicks gaining a 22.5% share.

Danone would buy UB's European assets for �290m, and Hicks would sell its UK brands acquired from Hillsdown.

If the joint bid is accepted, Danone would acquire United Biscuits' operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Scandinavia, Finland, Poland and Hungary, its snackfood interests in Germany and Italy and certain savoury biscuit brands in Britain.

Nabisco would acquire United Biscuits' operations in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and would hand its operations in Europe and the Middle East to Danone.

The name of the new company has not yet been decided, but the bidders are likely to retain much of UB's existing management team. The United Biscuits board is expected to approve the bid later this week.

But the joint offer could face problems from UK and European regulatory bodies, which could require further sell-offs to ensure competition in the biscuit market.

A bidding war for United Biscuits erupted last year when Burlington increased its offer for UB to 254p a share, valuing United at �1.2bn.

Just three hours later, Finalrealm trumped the bid with an offer of 265p a share, pushing the value of UB up to �1.26bn.

UB's woes

The battle to win control of UB, which makes the well-known Penguin and McVitie's brands as well as KP snacks, began when the company let it be known it was struggling and was open to offers.

UB's woes have been largely the result of supermarket price wars, which have put pressure on its margins. It concluded that it needed to be part of a larger concern to be able to compete.

United Biscuits is an international food group with operations in 22 countries, employing 22,500 people around the world - about 19,000 of these are in the UK.

It has international biscuit sales worth nearly �1bn and its UK snacks business boasts sales worth more than �300m.

It is the fourth-largest biscuit company in the world and number two in Europe.

A number of ailing UK brands have come under siege in recent years. Hicks Muse is also bidding for Rank Hovis MacDougall, while Reckitt and Coleman was forced into a merger last year with a Dutch rival.