CITIGROUP INC. (Reuters) - Private equity firm Carlyle Group LP (>> The Carlyle Group LP) is one of the firms interested in buying a set of businesses being put up for sale by Serco Group Plc (>> Serco Group plc), a British outsourcing firm, Sky News reported.
Sky said it is still unclear whether Carlyle is interested in buying all of the assets. (http://bit.ly/1tHK0xK)
Serco's Chief Executive Officer Rupert Soames has selected bankers to oversee the sale of a trio of non-core businesses as it prepares to launch a 550 million pounds rights issue, Sky reported.
Citigroup Inc (>> Citigroup Inc) will handle the auction of Intelenet, a business process outsourcing provider, and the Listening Company, which manages customer contact services for clients, Sky reported.
Sky said the latter could fetch about 500 million pounds, according to analysts.
On Monday Serco cut its profit forecast for this year and next, and wrote down the value of its business by 1.5 billion pounds following a review by Soames to tackle a string of failed contracts.
Other units put up for sale include the environmental services division and the company's leisure unit, Sky reported.
Livingstone Partners will handle sale of the leisure unit and Rothschild has been asked to oversee sale of the environmental services division, Sky said.
Carlyle, Serco, Citi, Livingstone and Rothschild were not immediately available for comment.
The announcement, which also included a plan to cancel the dividend, had sent the shares down as much as 35 percent.
(Reporting by Shivam Srivastava in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
