KKR consortium to bid for gene-sequencing equipment maker Life Technologies: report

Private-equity giant KKR & Co is planning to form a competing consortium to bid for gene-sequencing equipment maker Life Technologies Corp, The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported.

KKR, which had earlier been in talks with Advent International to place a joint bid, has pulled out of the talks, said the report.

Last week, Bloomberg had reported that a consortium comprising private equity firms Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, TPG Capital and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings is exploring an offer for Life Technologies.

Also in the race are rivals Thermo Fisher Scientific and Danaher Corp, but the high value of Life Technologies is slowing their decision making, said the report.

Life Technologies, whose market cap is around $10 billion, may expect an offer of around $12.5 billion including debt.

California-based Life Technologies, which competes with Illumina Inc, had in January said that it is exploring strategic alternatives and had hired Deutsche Bank and Moelis & Co to assist in the process.