The Financial Times reports that Bain Capital’s Special Situations unit is among the groups to have submitted a first round bid for the UK’s largest coffee chain. Costa Coffee has also attracted interest from the private equity owner of Asda, TDR Capital. Apollo, another prospective suitor for Costa, declined to submit a bid, according to people familiar with the matter. Costa, which was started in London more than 50 years ago, is the world’s second largest coffee chain after Starbucks, with more than 2,700 branches in the UK and Ireland. Bain’s Special Situations was set up in 2018 by the US private capital group to provide “liquidity for complex assets”, according to its website.