An offer for supermarket chain Sainsbury’s worth some £10.1 billion has been blocked by the Sainsbury family.

The family, which owns an 18% stake in Sainsbury’s, is understood to have prevented its takeover by a private equity consortium by rejecting a new bid of 582p per share.

The consortium – comprising CVC Capital Partners, Blackstone Group and Texas Pacific Group – had raised its offer by 20p from 562p per share. The Sainsbury family is expected to refuse any offer below 600p.

The share price of Sainsbury’s fell to 537p on the news, from a high of 561p on April 5. Furthermore, both Blackstone and Texas Pacific Group have dropped out of the consortium, according to press reports. This follows the latter’s replacement of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts last week.

London-based Sainsbury’s generated a pre-tax profit of £194 million for the 28 weeks to October 7, 2006, a 123% increase compared with the same period in 2005.