The battle for Morrisons, Britain's fourth-largest supermarket group, is the most high-profile looming takeover in the country amid a raft of bids and counter bids, reflecting private equity's appetite for UK Plc.

Here is a timeline of events so far.

June 19

Morrisons says it rejected a proposed 5.52 billion pound ($7.7 billion) cash offer from U.S. private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) on June 17.

June 30

Morrisons investor JO Hambro says CD&R should increase its offer to around 6.5 billion pounds.

July 3

Morrisons agrees to a 6.3 billion pound takeover offer from a consortium led by SoftBank owned Fortress Investment Group.

July 5

A third private equity group, Apollo Global Management, says it is evaluating a possible offer for Morrisons.

July 20

Apollo says it will not bid for Morrisons on its own but may join the Fortress consortium.

July 22

Scheme document outlining Fortress' offer is published and Aug. 16 date set for Morrisons' shareholders to vote on the offer.

Takeover Panel gives CD&R until Aug. 9 to announce a firm intention to make an offer or walk away -- a so-called "put-up or shut-up" order.

July 27

Silchester, Morrisons' biggest shareholder, says not inclined to support Fortress' offer.

July 28

Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, GIC, joins the Fortress-led private equity consortium.

July 29

Morrisons investor M&G says Fortress offer does not reflect value of supermarket group.

Aug. 6

Morrisons agrees to improved takeover offer worth 6.7 billion pounds from Fortress consortium and adjourns shareholder meeting to vote on the offer to Aug. 27.

Aug. 9

Takeover Panel extends CD&R's "put-up or shut-up" deadline to Aug. 20.

($1 = 0.7207 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)