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.

Private equity firms are still finding it difficult to finance large deals because bankers remain unwilling to provide debt financing for substantial leveraged buyouts.

EQT, which has raised approximately EUR13 billion in 12 funds, is owned by Investor AB (IVSBY) and is the main investment vehicle of Sweden's powerful Wallenberg family.

In addition to bidding for Ratiopharm, EQT is poised to buy German academic publisher Springer Science and Business Media in a deal that values the company's equity at EUR100 million to EUR150 million, with EQT also taking on responsibility for Springer's debt of EUR2.2 billion, a person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires earlier Wednesday.

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

(Natascha Divac contributed to this report.)
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