CCC, Poland's biggest shoe retailer, started to look for a minority investor for eobuwie last year, saying it needed a partner with e-commerce know-how as the group turns to online sales while traditional shops suffer from lockdown measures to stem the spread of COVID-19.

The sources also said private equity firms Cinven, Advent International and Mid Europa Partners were looking at eobuwie, adding that the pandemic had made e-commerce particularly interesting to investors.

CCC said previously that it planned to close the sale in the first quarter, expecting that a new partner would invest around 500 million zlotys ($133.70 million) in eobuwie.

CCC, Advent International and Cinven declined to comment, while SoftBank and Mid Europa Partners were not immediately available.

($1 = 3.7397 zlotys)

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Anna Koper; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)