A sports marketing group which works with Formula One motor racing and the International Olympic Committee is in advanced talks to be sold to a British buyout firm for £250m.

Sky News has learnt that Two Circles, which was founded by Gareth Balch, a former international athlete, could announce a deal to be acquired by Charterhouse as early as this week.

City sources said on Tuesday that the deal had been under discussion for some time.

Two Circles, which has been owned by Bruin Sports Capital since 2019, uses data on sports fans to help its clients target their audiences more effectively.

It also works with the Premier League, the NFL and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

WPP, the FTSE-100 marketing services group, has also been a long-standing backer of Two Circles, having bought a majority stake in the business in 2015.

Two Circles has itself been acquisitive, buying TRM Partners, a sports sponsorship agency, in 2020 for about $45m.

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The deal will mark a rare recent UK acquisition for Charterhouse, which in the past was a co-owner of companies such as the AA and Saga but which has been relatively inconspicuous in recent years despite a deluge of private equity deal making.

One insider said that Two Circles would continue to be run by Mr Balch and the existing management team after the takeover.

Charterhouse declined to comment.

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