Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, the world's biggest buyout firm, agreed to purchase Germany's largest independent car-repair company for 1.45 billion euros (US$1.75 billion), a month after an initial share sale was scrapped.

　　Doughty Hanson & Co, the buyout firm that owns the company, called ATU Auto-Teile-Unger AG, will get US$850 million from the sale, 3 1/2 times the amount it invested in 2002.

　　London-based Doughty Hanson is selling assets to return profits to investors to attract backers for a new 3 billion euro takeover fund. A share sale of ATU, based in Weiden in southern Germany, was pulled in May because it would have valued the company at less than the minimum 1 billion euros that ATU Chief Executive Officer Werner Aichinger said it was worth.

　　"Due to volatile equity market conditions, the proposed initial public offering was postponed," Claus Felder, a partner at Doughty Hanson, said in a statement. "KKR recognized the value and future potential of ATU."

　　Under Doughty Hanson's ownership, ATU expanded its outlets by more than a fifth to 468 from 378 and sales rose 8 percent to 1.12 billion euros in 2003.

　　Separately, Doughty Hanson plans to announce the sale of Dunlop Standard Aerospace Holdings this week to Washington-based buyout firm Carlyle Group and Meggitt Plc, a UK maker of parts for civil airliners, people familiar with the situation have said.

　　Doughty Hanson put US$264 million into the maker of components for the aerospace industry in 1998.

　　Meggitt this month said it's in talks to buy Dunlop Standard. Carlyle spokeswoman Katherine Elmore-Jones declined to comment.

　　Buyout firms try to boost profit before selling companies within five years.

　　(Bloomberg News)