Arcapita in talks to buy UK haulage firm

Bahrain Islamic investment bank Arcapita is looking to acquire UK rail freight operator Freightliner for around 350 million pounds ($692.9 million), sources close to the deal have said.

Arcapita is in talks with Freightliner's current private equity owners 3i and Electra Partners, and is close to entering "exclusive discussions" to buy the company, the haulage unit of British Rail, according to the UK's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

The deal could be wrapped up within the next few weeks, the sources said.

Arcapita said in February it had completed a deal to buy US storage firm Portable On-Demand Storage (PODS) for $451.4 million.

In January the bank bought a Texas power plant for $695 million, its biggest US acquisition to date.