FRANKFURT, Feb 24 (Reuters) - German laboratory group Amedes is being prepared for a potential 1.4 billion euro ($1.7 billion) sale on the back of a pandemic-driven spike in demand for its services, people close to the matter said.
The group's majority owner, French infrastructure investor Antin, has invited investment banks to pitch for roles in an auction that is expected to launch in the second half of 2021, they said.
Antin and Amedes declined to comment.
Amedes has annual core earnings of more than 100 million euros and could be valued at 12-14 times that in a potential deal, the sources said.
Rivals such as Sonic SHL.AX , Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) DGX.N and LabCorp LH.N trade at 8-10 times their expected core earnings.
The deal would follow an expected stock market listing by bigger rival Synlab, which sources say is slated to take place after Easter and could value the Cinven-owned business at about 6 billion euros. operates laboratories at 90 sites in Germany, Belgium, Austria and Dubai, employing about 4,000 staff and treating 450,000 patients a year.
The company processes so-called PCR tests for the coronavirus as well a wide variety of medicals tests for patients, doctors and hospitals, including oncological, genetic, microbiological and pathological tests.
The company was founded in 1987 and has since grown through a string of acquisitions. Buyout group General Atlantic took a majority stake in 2007, which it sold to Antin in 2015 in a deal valuing the firm at about 800 million euros.
($1 = 0.8223 euros) (Editing by David Goodman)