Apax poised for 450 million euro Dutch online retail deal

British private equity firm Apax is close to a 450 million euro ($499 million) deal to buy RFS Holland Holding, a major operator of online retailers in the Netherlands, Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad reported on Friday.

The newspaper cited anonymous sources with knowledge of the deal. Apax and RFS declined comment.

Privately held RFS operates Wehkamp.nl, originally a popular mail-order catalogue, and household goods retailer Fonq.nl. Both compete against the dominant web store Bol.com, owned by Ahold, with Amazon only a minor player in the Netherlands.

Wehkamp made headlines in 2013 when it announced plans to spend 80 million euros to build what it said would be the world's largest automated distribution system, able to deliver 80,00 packages a day.

In 2014 RFS reported operating profit of 29 million euros on sales of 498 million euros.