CCMP seeks to sell Nowaco Central Europe -sources

By Victoria Howley

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Private equity firm CCMP Capital Advisors is seeking to sell chilled and frozen food distributor Nowaco Central Europe for about 250 million euros ($347 million), three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

CCMP has hired JPMorgan as financial adviser, the sources said. First-round bids have already been submitted, one of the the sources said.

CCMP, which was spun out of JPMorgan (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) in 2006, bought Nowaco Central Europe from Denmark's Nowaco A/S for around 90 million euros in 2005, along with Eastern European-focused buyout firm Bancroft Private Equity. Nowaco Central Europe distributes chilled and frozen food in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

Bancroft is also seeking to sell its interest, one of the people said. Bancroft's stake is held in its Bancroft II, LP fund, in which CCMP is itself an investor.

CCMP and Bancroft declined to comment. JPMorgan did not immediately return a request for comment.

Representatives at Nowaco Central Europe's Czech headquarters did not return telephone and email requests for comment. (Additional reporting by Quentin Webb, Megan Davies and Simon Meads; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)