Private equity firms have entered bids for South Korean beer business Oriental Brewery in what would be one of the largest buyouts since the collapse of Lehman Brothers if the $2bn (€1.6bn) price tag is met. The market for large-scale private equity deals effectively dried-up after the US investment bank filed for bankruptcy in September.

Asian-focused private equity firms Affinity Equity Partners and MBK Partners have each bid for the business, according to Thomson Reuters