NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Initial bids for Burger King, a unit of Diageo PLC, are expected later this week and the business is expected to fetch as much as $2.3 billion, people familiar with the auction told CNN/Money Tuesday.

Blackstone Group LP, Thomas H. Lee and Texas Pacific Group are expected to bid, sources said. Bain Capital, which is majority owner of Domino's Inc., also is interested in the business, another source familiar with the negotiations told CNN/Money.

However, Tricon Global Restaurants, which owns Taco Bell and KFC, denied it will make a bid. Tricon (YUM: Research, Estimates) is busy with its pending $320 million acquisition of Long John Silver's and A&W All American Food Restaurants chain, spokesman Jonathan Blum said.

"As a matter of course we review all possible industry opportunities," Blum added.

Offers are expected to range from $2 billion to $2.3 billion, but the Whopper behemoth could fetch more. The auction will consist of two rounds, and an announcement is expected sometime in the third or fourth quarter, various sources familiar with the auction told CNN/Money.

Miami-based Burger King, the world's second-largest burger chain behind McDonalds, has 11,435 restaurants in 57 countries and territories. Nearly two years ago, parent Diageo announced plans to separate the unit and said it was considering offering shares in an initial public offering.

London-based Diageo (DEO: Research, Estimates), the world's largest liquor company whose brands include Johnnie Walker Scotch and Guinness beers, had planned to list Burger King on the New York Stock Exchange.

But poor market conditions for new issues caused Diageo to put the offering on hold. Last summer, the company said it also was considering a leveraged buyout instead of an IPO.

Diageo is considering all its options for the hamburger unit, including an IPO, a sale to a third party or an LBO, a Diageo spokeswoman said Tuesday.

"We are some way from a conclusion of this," Diageo spokesman Ian Wright said, declining further comment.

Burger King was part of the Pillsbury business that U.K. food and drink company Grand Metropolitan PLC bought in 1989, and became part of Diageo when GrandMet and Guinness merged in December 1997. Diageo, as part of its strategy to focus on its more profitable alcoholic beverage business, completed the sale of it Pillsbury unit to General Mills for $5.9 billion late last year.

Burger King referred all calls to Diageo. Bain, Blackstone, Thomas H. Lee and Texas Pacific all declined comment.