Rheinmetall AG (XTRA:RHM) and Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA are vying for Renk Aktiengesellschaft (DB:ZAR), which Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has put up for sale to free up funds for investment in electric vehicles, people close to the matter said. The industrials groups are among those expected to submit first-round bids for Renk by a mid-October deadline, they said.

The bids could give the company an enterprise value of around €700 million ($769.37 million). KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE:KKR), The Carlyle Group L.P. (NasdaqGS:CG), and Advent Capital Management, LLC are also among the potential suitors, while defense firm Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co.

KG's interest was expected to be muted, they said, adding that the signing of a deal is not expected before 2020. Voith, Rheinmetall and Carlyle declined to comment while the other potential bidders were not immediately available for comment. Volkswagen declined to comment on specifics of the deal, saying it was working on a forward-looking solution for Renk in the wider context of developing a growth perspective for the group's mechanical engineering division.