At least seven potential buyers including one from Bahrain, are in the running to bid for a minority holding in Italian fashion house Versace, which plans to sell a 15-20 per cent stake to fund growth, sources said.

Italy's state-controlled fund FSI, Bahrain's Investcorp, and private equity firms Ardian, Permira, KKR and Company, Clessidra and Blackstone are all considering buying the stake, but a final shortlist has not yet been drawn up, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Versace chief executive Gian Giacomo Ferraris said last month the company planned to finalise a shortlist by the middle of this month.

China's Fosum and South Korea's E-Land, two of the several names that had been circulating in the Press, said last month they were not interested while sources with knowledge of the situation said that Qatar was looking less likely to bid despite holding talks with the group earlier this year. - TradeArabia News Service