DuPont gets three final bids for car paint unit: sources

(Reuters) - DuPont (DD.N) has received three final bids for its car paint unit, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as the chemical company's auction of the roughly $3.5 billion business enters its final leg.

Carlyle Group LP (CG.O), Apollo Global Management LLC (APO.N) and a consortium of KKR & Co LP (KKR.N) and Onex Corp (OCX.TO) submitted final bids last Friday, the sources said. A pairing of Blackstone Group LP (BX.N) and Bain Capital LLC, which was previously in the process, dropped out, they added.

Representatives of DuPont, KKR, Onex, Apollo, Carlyle, Blackstone and Bain either declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment.

The performance coatings business primarily sells to Maaco and other auto paint refinishers. Ford Motor Co (F.N) and General Motors Co (GM.N) are also key customers, though selling to so-called original equipment manufacturers is not as lucrative.

(Reporting by Michael Erman, Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)