By Kane Wu, Pamela Barbaglia and Dasha Afanasieva
HONG KONG/LONDON (Reuters) - The owners of shopping tax-refund firm Global Blue have held talks with investment banks over the past two days to select advisers for a possible share sale next year, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The deal could value the Swiss firm at up to 3 billion euros ($3.46 billion), one of the sources said.
Silver Lake, which has controlled Global Blue since 2012, is expected to select banks later this year with a view to floating the business in the first half of next year, the sources said.
Reuters reported last year that Silver Lake and Partners Group, which has a minority stake in the business, had started sounding out possible bidders and had signed non-disclosure agreements with a series of interested parties.
The sources said Silver Lake is now looking to press ahead with an initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of 2018 but has yet to decide where to list the company.
The U.S. buyout fund sees an IPO as its preferred option, the sources said, and has no plans to launch a sales process this year.