A trio of private equity firms are vying to snap up TCW Group [profile]. Jennifer Ablan, Paritosh Bansal and Jessica Toonkel of Reuters report that "Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and at least two other private equity firms submitted bids" for the Los Angeles-based Societe Generale subsidiary "in recent weeks." The wire service did not identify the other two private equity bidders.

Spokespeople for Clayton, SocGen and TCW declined to comment to Reuters.

Back in November, Bloomberg reported that SocGen was weighing a sale, though TCW and SocGen spokespeople officially denied any talk of a sale and sources told MFWire that any sale talks would still be in the informal, pitchbook-less stage. At the time, estimates of TCW's value ranged from $700 million to $1 billion.

More recently, sources told MFWire of a possible management-led leveraged buyout (LBO) at TCW, though one banker said that he "cannot believe the French would allow it." Reuters now reports that "TCW's management is leading the buyout discussions and is expected to take an equity interest if a deal materializes." The wire service puts the price tag for TCW at about $700 million. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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