China‘s Bright Food will take control of breakfast cereal maker Weetabix, beloved by generations of British children, in the biggest foreign acquisition by a Chinese food group.

State-owned Bright Food has agreed to buy a 60 percent stake in a deal which puts a value of 1.2 billion pounds ($1.94 billion), including debt, on the private-equity owned company that coined the slogan “Have you had your Weetabix today?”

The Shanghai-based group has been on the acquisition trail, seeking to raise its profile and cater for its rapidly growing home market. Weetabix is its second foreign purchase in a year and its first in Europe after other deals fell through.

Eighty-year-old Weetabix is Britain’s second biggest maker of breakfast cereals and cereal bars after Kellogg.

Its brands include Alpen muesli and Ready Break as well as Weetabix, which lays claim to being Britain’s No. 1 breakfast cereal for…