Private equity firms line up bids for BSN Medical - sources

By Arno Schuetze and Pamela Barbaglia

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BC Partners, Blackstone (BX.N) and CVC [CVC.UL] are among the private equity firms expected to make non-binding bids on Monday for German bandage and plaster cast maker BSN Medical, several people close to the matter said.

BSN Medical rivals such as Sweden's SCA (SCAb.ST) and U.S. and Chinese companies are also expected to submit offers for an acquisition potentially worth about 3 billion euros (£2.78 billion), the sources said.

Swedish buyout firm EQT, which put BSN up for sale earlier this year, will compare the bids to the potential return from possible stock market listing, with the help of JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, the sources said.

EQT and the potential bidders declined to comment.

"It's a dual track and the initial public offering is the preferred option. The publication of an intention to float is expected in the first half of 2017," one of the people close to the matter said.

BSN reported earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 201 million euros in 2015 and that is expected to increase to 216 million this year and 235 million next year, another source said.

EQT is hoping for a valuation of at least 13 times BSN's expected 2017 core earnings, the people said.

Rivals such as Smith & Nephew (SN.L), CR Bard (BCR.N) and Coloplast (COLOb.CO) trade at multiples of 10.3-16.1 their expected core earnings. Medical products maker ConvaTec is planning an initial public offering at a valuation of more than 13 times expected core earnings.

BSN, which employs about 6,000 people worldwide, was set up in 2001 as a joint venture between Germany's Beiersdorf (BEIG.DE) and Britain's Smith & Nephew when the two decided to combine their wound care, fracture management, physiotherapy and compression therapy businesses.

EQT bought BSN medical, whose brands include Leukoplast plasters, in 2012 in a 1.8 billion euro deal.

EQT has expanded the business through acquisitions as part of a buy-and-build strategy to boost BSN's operations in markets including France, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand.

Bankers are preparing about 1.4 billion euros of debt financing to back a potential buyout of BSN, banking sources said earlier this week.

(Additional reporting by Ludwig Burger and Johannes Hellstrom; editing by David Clarke)