IKB books to be opened for selected bidders -KfW

FRANKFURT, March 9 (Reuters) - German state development bank KfW [KFW.UL] will give selected bidders for subprime casualty bank IKB (IKBG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) access to IKB's books on Monday, a spokesman at KfW, the main owner of IKB, told Reuters on Sunday.

Financial sources familiar with the situation have said U.S. private equity firms Ripplewood Holdings, JC Flowers and Lone Star [LS.UL] were among the initial bidders.

KfW said in a statement on Feb. 29 it had received "a range of offers, from both domestic and foreign bidders."

IKB, originally a lender to medium-sized German companies, has had to be rescued three times since July last year, when its investments in risky U.S. subprime mortgage securities turned sour.

The German government is hoping for a quick sale of KfW's 43-percent stake.

A German industrial research foundation also wants to sell its approximately 10 percent stake in IKB, whose shares have lost almost four-fifths of their value in the past 12 months compared with a loss of 35 percent for the DJ Stoxx European banks index . IKB shares closed at 6.20 euros last Friday. (Reporting by Patricia Nann, writing by Peter Starck; Editing by David Cowell)