One of Springer Science owners, Swedish private equity firm EQT said in a statement on Wednesday the closing of the transaction was expected in August.

The dual track approach of EQT and co-owner Government of Singapore Investment Corporation , which prepared both a direct sale and a flotation, appears to have paid off.

Sources told Reuters earlier this week that the owners entered fresh negotiations with BC Partners after last week rejecting the private equity firm's 3.1 billion euro ($4.1 billion) bid as too low.

People familiar with the negotiations had said EQT and GIC had previously aborted sale talks to focus on a stock market listing, after which BP Partners topped up its bid.

The deal is the largest takeover of a German company by a private equity group since the 4 billion euro acquisition of forklift truck maker Kion by KKR (>> KKR & Co. L.P.) and Goldman Sachs (>> Goldman Sachs Group Inc) in 2006.

Springer, which competes with Anglo-Dutch publisher Reed Elsevier (>> Reed Elsevier plc) and Dutch company Wolters Kluwer (>> WOLTERS KLUWER), publishes 2,200 English-language journals and more than 8,000 new book titles every year.

British private equity investors Candover (>> Candover Investments plc) and Cinven created Springer Science in 2004 by merging Dutch group Kluwer Academic Publishers with German firm BertelsmannSpringer.

In December 2009, EQT and GIC bought 82 percent and 18 percent of the company, respectively, from Candover and Cinven.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Ludwig Burger and Philipp Halstrick. Editing by Jane Merriman)