Qatari Diar, a major real estate investment firm, plans to bid for Frence's Cegelec, an engineering and electrical engineering group.

The company's lawyer Baker and McKenzie was quoted by AFP as saying that Qatari Diar was negotiating with the private equity fund LBO France to close the deal.

Qatari Diar is owned by the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the country.

French financial daily La Tribune has reported that four candidates were in the running to buy Cegelec. The newspaper identified French groups BTP Vinci and Eiffage, as well as two investment funds, one from Russia, the other Qatari.

The newspaper reported that the offers were in the order of 1.6 to 1.7 billion euros ($2.6 billion dollars).

Cegelec employs 25,000 people across about 30 countries worldwide.