According to the paper, Flora, the hygiene and cleaning products unit of J&F, delivered the highest proposal to the Belgian diaper maker, which acquired the business in Brazil from local rival Hypera in 2017.

But the paper does not specify the bid value, saying that proposals from other companies were around 500 million reais ($97 million) and that Ontex expected to get around 650 million reais.

J&F declined to comment. Ontex did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Ontex paid $319 million for the business in 2017. But the company received 81 million euros back last year in an arbitration against Hypera.

($1 = 5.1315 reais)

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer)