French oilseed and protein group Avril said on Wednesday it was in exclusive talks with grain cooperative Axereal to buy all of its animal nutrition activities, which it then plans to combine with its animal feed unit Sanders, reported Reuters.

It gave no indication of the size of the deal, but said Axereal animal feed unit Axereal Elevage had sales of 234 million euros ($258.6 million) in 2022, and was producing 400,000 tonnes of feed per year.

Avril's unit Sanders, France's largest animal feed maker, produces about 3.4 million tonnes a year, it also said.

The takeover is subject to an information-consultation process with Axereal Elevage's employee representatives and approval by the French Competition Authority.

Avril had sales of 9 billion euros in 2022, while Axereal has a turnover of around 4 billion euros per year, the companies said in a joint statement.

($1 = 0.9051 euros)