Elis is said to make a rejected bid for UniFirst amid Vestis talks, Bloomberg By Reuters reports

(Reuters) – French workplace materials supplier Elis SA has made an informal takeover offer to U.S. company UniFirst (NYSE: ) Corp, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Massachusetts-based UniFirst approached Elis to gauge its interest in a deal after Elis’ takeover approach to rival Vestis Corp became public last month, the report added.

At the same time, Elis and Vestis are still in exploratory talks about a potential deal, Bloomberg said.

Elis, UniFirst and Vestis did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside normal business hours.

Elis and Vestis confirmed the interest about a month ago, after Reuters first reported the takeover offer.

Elis, which has a market value of about 9.2 billion euros ($10.15 billion) including debt, is a supplier of workplace supplies and offers uniform maintenance services.

(1 USD = 0.9060 euros)