MILAN, Nov 25 (Reuters) - IT consultancy Accenture and international fintech company ION Group are among a group of four bidders that have submitted indicative bids for Italian banking software and back-office group Cedacri, two sources told Reuters.

Italian IT services provider Engineering, backed by Bain Capital, is also vying for control of Cedacri along with a consortium of private equity fund Apax and Italy's digital services group Reply, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is private.

Cedacri and the bidders declined to comment.

Cedacri, which is advised by Deutsche Bank, aims to identify its preferred bidder by the end of the year, the sources said, adding that the deal is worth more than 1 billion euros ($1.19 billion).

Cedacri is backed by Italian state-backed fund FSI, with a 27% stake, and by another 14 financial institutions including Banca Mediolanum, Gruppo Banco Desio and Unipol .

The sale is still in the preliminary stages but discussions are expected to gain momentum in the coming weeks, the sources said.

Italian daily Il Sole reported earlier on Wednesday that Cedacri had initially explored an initial public offering (IPO) but its focus had gradually shifted to selling a majority stake.

The company, based in the northern Italian town of Parma, reported revenues of 383 million euros in 2019, with adjusted core profit of 81.2 million euros, up 50% compared to 2018.

($1 = 0.8400 euros) (Reporting by Elisa Anzolin; editing by Pamela Barbaglia, Kirsten Donovan)