Belgium's Ontex close to selling its Brazil business to J&F -report

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Belgium's Ontex Group NV is close to selling its business in Brazil to conglomerate J&F Investimentos, through its unit Flora, Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico reported on Tuesday.

According to the paper, Flora, the hygiene and cleaning products unit of J&F, delivered the highest proposal to the Belgian diaper maker, which acquired the business in Brazil from local rival Hypera in 2017.

But the paper does not specify the bid value, saying that proposals from other companies were around 500 million reais ($97 million) and that Ontex expected to get around 650 million reais.

J&F declined to comment. In an e-mailed statement, Ontex said it is divesting its emerging markets activities after a strategy review last year. The company added that last month it announced an agreement to sell the business in Mexico to Softys SA. "The process for divesting our Brazilian and Middle Eastern business activities is underway".

($1 = 5.1315 reais)

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Editing by Louise Heavens)