By Marietta Cauchi Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Bain Capital haven't made it through to the second round of the auction for frozen-food company Iglo Group, a person familiar with the situation told Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday. The elimination of the two buyout firms leaves up to four bidders in the process including rival private equity firms Blackstone Group LP (BX), BC Partners and PAI Partners. It is unclear whether Thai company Charoen Pokphand PCL (CPF.TH) is a remaining bidder. Permira, the private-equity owner of Iglo, has hired Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) to run the auction of the business, which has been valued at between EUR2.5 billion and EUR2.6 billion, or between eight and nine times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Iglo is Europe's largest frozen-food company by sales and makes products under the Captain Birds Eye and Findus brands in Italy. It posted Ebitda of EUR325.8 million on revenue of EUR1.6 billion for 2011. Permira bought Iglo from Unilever PLC (UL) for EUR1.7 billion in 2006, and in July 2010 recombined Birds Eye with Unilever's other frozen-food business, Findus Italy, in a GBP675 million deal. - By Marietta Cauchi, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9241; marietta.cauchi@dowjones.com
