March 9 (Reuters) - Market research group Kantar's

owners are exploring the sale of its Worldpanel division for 5

billion pounds ($6.5 billion) or more, Sky News reported on

Sunday, while in a separate report the Financial Times said

Kantar is set to be broken up and sold.

Kantar's owners Bain Capital and advertising group WPP ( WPP )

declined to comment on the reports, while Kantar did not

immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Sky report said the move by Bain and WPP ( WPP ) to sell

Worldpanel - which runs consumer panels globally - is yet to be

finalized. Any such deal would leave Kantar as a standalone

brand-strategy consultancy, it said.

In January, Kantar sold its television audience rating unit

to buyout fund H.I.G Capital for about $1 billion. Kantar had

acquired Chicago-based data company Numerator in 2021, and

merged it with the Worldpanel division in January 2025.

The FT said Bain and WPP ( WPP ) had previously been weighing up an

IPO for the remaining business of Kantar, but they were now

seeking to sell its major divisions.

WPP ( WPP ) sold a 60% stake in Kantar to Bain in 2019, valuing the

company at 3.2 billion pounds at the time.

($1 = 0.7740 pounds)