Buyout group EQT has emerged as the leading bidder for a stake in Germany’s Ottobock, the world’s largest maker of artificial limbs, as talks with rival investor CVC continue, people familiar with the matter said.
The investors have each made an offer to take a 20 percent stake in Ottobock’s core healthcare division as part of efforts to prepare the company for an eventual stock market listing, the people said.
Ottobock, which was founded in 1919 as a maker of prosthetics for World War One veterans, said in January it was worth about 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) and was being advised by JP Morgan on the sale.