Private equity firms consider bidding for NBTY - source

NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuters) - Private equity firms Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Carlyle are considering acquiring U.S. nutritional supplements maker NBTY Inc NTY.N, a source familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

The private equity firms are working separately from each other, not as a consortium, the source said. It was unclear at what stage the plans were.

News of a potential deal was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal which said Blackstone and Carlyle are in talks to buy the firm.

The companies could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

NBTY, which has a market value of about $2.3 billion, posted a quarterly profit in April and missed market expectations by a wide margin, hurt by increased spending on television advertising. (Reporting by Megan Davies in New York and Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Anshuman Daga)