Carlyle Group has hired investment bank Natixis to explore a sale of its stake in French medical equipment company Groupe Marle, according to people familiar with the process.

Marle posted around €24 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and looks set to record €30 million in Ebitda this fiscal year, the people said. A potential sale of the business could value the company at around €300 million, based on average price multiples of nine- to 10-times Ebidta for deals in the medical equipment industry, they said.

Marle specializes in orthopedic implants, made from both alloys and polyethylene, and sells its products world-wide. The company said it produces one million implants annually and recorded €85 million in revenue last year.

Based in Nogent, France, the global company bought Finortho SAS in October, as it sought to round out its supply chain and address the growing need to polish implants to improve their fit. Finortho, which provided manual polishing, electrolytic polishing and vibratory finishing, among other services, recorded €2.3 million in annual revenue, according to Marle's website.

Interest in Marle will likely be buoyed by the world's aging population and the resulting increase in demand for knee, hip and joint surgeries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in 2010, the latest data available, about 719,000 knee replacement surgeries were performed in the U.S. alone, more than half of which were on people aged 65 or older. There were also 332,000 hip replacements that year.

Industry participants said U.S. private-equity firms have been paying more attention to Western Europe as a source for deals. Jeremy Swan, the national director for the private equity and venture capital industry at advisory firm CohnReznick LLP, said that "saturated deal flow" in the U.S. is prompting an uptick of private-equity firms investing across the pond.

"The supply of quality deals is low [domestically] and valuations are high, so as a result, firms are looking to uncover new opportunities to get a better deal and put their dollars to work in countries such as Belgium, France, Germany and the United Kingdom," he said.

One industry participant said purchase price multiples of deals in Europe are generally "one turn" lower than those in the U.S. because of the more challenging macroeconomic environment in Europe.

Carlyle in 2009 bought an 80% interest in Marle, financing it from the Carlyle Europe Technology Partners II LP, a €530 million fund launched in 2007. The Marle family and the company's management team retained a 20% stake in the business.

The firm in 2015 raised €656 million for a follow-up fund, Carlyle Europe Technology Partners III LP.

Write to Amy Or at amy.or@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 03, 2016 21:45 ET (01:45 GMT)