Pedro Bonet, who leads the tranche of family wishing to sell and is current president of the DO Cava confirmed to Drinks International that it had been in negotiation with Henkel, a deadline of April had been set for the deal to be condluded.

Catalan publication, Economía Digital reported on Saturday that the Freixenet board were due to hold a meeting to potentially sell the company to Henkell, which a source in the area has now confirmed.

According to the Catalan publication, Henkell had agreed to take 51% of the company’s property and take effective control in May, once the 2017-18 financial year ends.

The same report suggests that Henkell had presented the offer for the past two years and it is thought that the political situations in Catalonia delayed the merging of the two companies.

It is believed that the Catalan referendum on October 1 halted the transaction until after the regional elections on December 21.

Henkell sells a range of  25 wines and spirits and is a subsidiary company of German food group Dr. Oetker, which has a turnover of more than €500m, mainly outside Germany.