M+W Zander seeks facilities management partner

FRANKFURT, April 18 (Reuters) - German clean-room builder M+W Zander is seeking a partner for its facilities management unit, a spokesman said on Friday, confirming a report in German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"We are currently examining various options for the facility management unit. One option is a possible partnership in this business with another company, said the spokesman.

"There are talks about that with various interested parties, including some from Germany. There should be a decision over the course of this year," he added.

The newspaper said German builders Hochtief (HOTG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Bilfinger Berger GBFG.DE along with catering and services group Sodexo EXHO.PA and French utility Suez (LYOE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) had looked at M+W's books.

Hochtief declined to comment, Bilfinger Berger and Sodexo were not reachable and Suez had no immediate comment.

M+W, formerly a part of east German group Jenoptik JENG.DE, was bought by Austrian investment group Victory Industriebeteiligung a year ago.

The group has annual sales of about 2 billion euros ($3.2 billion) and the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung said its facilities management unit had sales of 436 million euros.

Victory -- which said at the time it bought M+W it would make a good fit with Swiss engineering group Oerlikon OERL.VX, in which it holds 26 percent -- has denied recently it plans to sell M+W or parts of M+W to Oerlikon. (Reporting by Joern Poltz in Frankfurt and Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris; Editing by David Holmes)