Three groups vie for chemicals maker Novacap-sources

* Blackstone (NYSE: BX - news) , CVC (Taiwan OTC: 4744.TWO - news) , Eurazeo (Other OTC: EUZOF - news) asked to prepare final bids -sources

* Buyout groups decline to comment; Ardian unavailable

* Novacap may be valued at 7.5 times core earnings -source (Adds details on valuation, advisers, background)

FRANKFURT, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Buyout group Ardian is moving ahead with the sale of French chemicals group Novacap in a potential 700 million euro ($783 million) deal, several people familiar with the matter said.

The investor has asked Blackstone, CVC and Eurazeo to prepare final bids for the supplier of products like aspirin, paracetamol, ketamine, soda ash and sodium bicarbonate after collecting preliminary bids at the end of January, they added on Thursday.

Ardian and the other buyout groups declined to comment, while Novacap was not immediately available for comment.

Lyon-headquartered Novacap, which last year earned just over 90 million euros before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation on sales of roughly 650 million euros may be valued at roughly 7.5 times its core earnings, one of the people said.

"The business is cash-intensive due to capex needs, and the company wants to keep existing corporate bonds, which limits the leverage that any buyer can load onto the asset," the person said, adding that the bidders were therefore unlikely to meet the original asking price of about 800 million euros.

Ardian bought a 96 percent stake in Novacap in 2011 and last year strengthened it with a series of acquisitions, the latest being that of Germany's CU Chemie Uetikon in 2015.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) is being advised by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) and BNP Paribas (Xetra: 887771 - news) on the divestment, sources familiar with the deal have said in the past. ($1 = 0.8943 euros) (Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Georgina Prodhan)