Tate & Lyle is believed to be close to a full or partial sale of its food and industrial ingredients business. The UK-based company has announced that an announcement over the sale would be made “within weeks”, with a break up or partial sale tipped to be the most likely. Tate put the division, which is estimated to fetch over £300m, up for sale in October last year. Potential buyers for various parts of the business include Roquette Frãres and Tereos of France, Archer Daniels Midland of the US and a number of private equity firms. US investment bank Citigroup is handling the sale.