(Bloomberg) -- KPS Capital Partners is emerging as the frontrunner to acquire Siemens AG’s Innomotics large motors business, people with knowledge of the matter said. 

The private equity firm is poised to beat out rival suitors including Japan’s Nidec Corp. and is negotiating final terms of a deal, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. They have been discussing a valuation of about €3 billion ($3.2 billion) for Innomotics, according to the people. 

KPS could reach an agreement as soon as the coming days, the people said. Deliberations are ongoing, and talks could still drag on longer or fall apart, the people said.

Spokespeople for Siemens and KPS declined to comment, while a representative for Nidec said they couldn’t comment on the matter. 

New York-based KPS is known in Germany for the acquisition of Thyssenkrupp AG’s Waupaca iron foundry in 2012 and the subsequent sale to Hitachi Metals Ltd. 

Innomotics makes heavy-duty electric motors used in ships and mining equipment. Siemens last year carved out Innomotics as a legally separate business and has said it plans to list the company on the stock market or sell it. 

Divesting the unit would mark a big step for Siemens’s revamp, in which the company has exited heavy-equipment businesses and moved toward higher-margin, software-driven product lines to catch up to the profitability levels of rivals.

The German conglomerate has offloaded most of the smaller divisions destined for divestment, alongside spinoffs of businesses like gas turbine maker Siemens Energy and health-care equipment maker Siemens Healthineers AG. 

--With assistance from Wilfried Eckl-Dorna, Manuel Baigorri and Yuki Furukawa.

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