Reuters: Three sources told Reuters that Olympus Corp is close to selling its microscope arm to a private equity company for more than $2.2 billion.
Bain Capital is the leader, according to two sources.
Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) and KKR & Co (NYSE:KKR) also submitted offers this month for the unit, which makes microscopes, industrial endoscopes, and x-ray analyzers.
If the sale goes through, it would be Olympus’ biggest divestment to date, according to Refinitiv statistics.
Olympus’ spokeswoman stated that nothing has been determined and the company will announce when necessary.
The firms declined to respond. Confidential information prevented all sources from revealing themselves.
Olympus, which began as a domestic microscope maker over a century ago, split off the unit in April.
Evident had 143.3 billion yen in assets by March and expects to earn 26.5 billion yen in operational profit this year.
Olympus recruited activist investor ValueAct Capital onto its board, bought international medical-equipment manufacturers, and divested its money-losing digital camera division.
The eighth paragraph corrects the profit estimate.