Blackstone Group's Pinnacle Brands Corp is likely to buy U.S. frozen vegetable company Birds Eye Foods for more than $1.3 billion, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The all-cash deal for Birds Eye, which is majority owned by private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners, will likely be announced as soon as later on Thursday, the people told the paper.

Blackstone and Birds Eye could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.

Last month, Birds Eye filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $350 million.

The Rochester, New York-based company said in the filing it held the top position in the frozen vegetables market with sales of $935.6 million in the fiscal year ended in June 2009.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Hans Peters and Simon Jessop)

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