Private Equity, Trade Buyers Bid For Dutch Retailer C1000 - Sources

Several private equity firms and trade buyers submitted first-round bids for Dutch supermarket chain C1000 by last week's deadline, people familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday.

BC Partners and Bain Capital were among the buyout firms that put in bids for the business, which is owned by CVC Capital Partners, the people added.

Potential trade buyers include rival Dutch retailers Plus and Sligro Food Group NV (SLIGR.AE), which had previously said they were interested in all or part of C1000 and Germany's Edeka.

Koninklijke Ahold NV (AH.AE) is also likely to have considered buying some stores, although its dominant market position will preclude it from bidding for the whole company.

Jumbo Group Holding BV, which has a market share of 5.5% in the Netherlands, may also have submitted a bid, but is expected to have teamed up with another bidder because it is still busy integrating Super de Boer, which it bought from France's Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA (CO.FR).

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) is running the auction for the business, which is valued around EUR1 billion. CVC bought it for EUR695 million in 2008.

C1000 has around 400 stores and is the number two supermarket chain in the Netherlands, after Ahold. Its revenue in 2010 was about EUR3.7 billion.

Owner CVC may also opt for a refinancing of the company, rather than a sale, which would enable it to pay out a dividend.

-By Marietta Cauchi, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

(Robin Van Daalen and Bart Koster in Amsterdam contributed to this article.)