Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the US buyout firm, this morning took the value of retail deals it has abandoned in the past two months to almost €30bn ($40.5bn) after dropping a second bid that would have hit buyout records.

KKR signalled it had withdrawn from the group bidding for Australia's second largest retailer, Coles, in a deal worth A$19.7bn (€12bn), potentially the country's biggest buyout to date. A source close to the consortium said after spending two weeks in the data room during the due diligence process "there were concerns with what they saw".