KKR, Bain Capital and MBK Partners are set to submit second-rounds bids to buy Japanese auto parts maker Calsonic Kansei Corp, which has a market value of $2.4 billion, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Thomson Reuters LPC.

The buyout firms will bid for Nissan Motor Co’s 41 percent stake in Calsonic, which Japan’s second-biggest automaker is auctioning. The winner of that bid is then expected to make a public tender for the rest of Calsonic’s shares, the sources said.

Calsonic provides private equity firms a rare opportunity to do a large-sized transaction in Japan, where they have traditionally been unwelcome as domestic companies are loathe to the drastic restructuring typically undertaken by private equity acquirers.

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