Swedish buyout firm EQT is the only private equity firm among a handful of bidders left in the sale of Ratiopharm Group International, the generic drug company being sold by Germany's Merckle family, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday.

TPG, Permira, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and a consortium comprising Advent International and Goldman Sachs have all dropped out leaving EQT the only buyout firm among industry players. U.S. pharma giant Pfizer Inc. (PFE), France's Sanofi-Aventis (SAN.FR), Teva Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (TEVA), Iceland's Actavis Group (ACT.IC) and China's Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd. (1099.HK) are among the trade bidders, people said.

The Merckle family, which owns the drug company through its investment vehicle VEM Vermoegensverwaltung GmbH, wants upwards of EUR2.5 billion for Ratiopharm, which was considered too much by the buyout firms that pulled out, the people added.

One person said that bids had come in at around the EUR2.5 billion mark.

Commerzbank AG (CBK.XE) and Royal Bank of Scotland PLC (RBS) are advising on the sale of the business. Commerzbank and BNP Paribas SA (BNP.FR) are advising the vendor on the staple financing, another person said. Staple finance is typically arranged by the vendor's advising bank in the sale of a business. The winning bidder has the option to accept the loan on offer or make its own financing arrangements.

It is unclear what the next stage in the process is but VEM has said it aims to close the sale during the first quarter of 2010.

A representatives for Ratiopharm declined to comment and a VEM spokesman wasn't immediately available to comment.

-By Marietta Cauchi, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9241; marietta.cauchi@dowjones.com

(Natascha Divac contributed to this report.)
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