Brookfield, CPPIB consortium enters next round in Uniper sales process, sources say

(Removes duplication in paragraph 8)

By Christoph Steitz

FRANKFURT, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A consortium of Brookfield and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is among suitors that have advanced to the next stage of German state-owned utility Uniper's sale, according to three people familiar with the process.

Bidders, including Norway's Equinor, Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky's EPH and a consortium consisting of KKR and RWE, submitted indicative bids for Uniper in September and have been awaiting feedback from the German government.

Suitors were informed about the next round, which would result in binding bids, on Friday, a separate source said.

Equinor also remains in the running, two of the people said, while Bloomberg reported that Britain's Centrica has also entered the next stage.

EPH and the KKR-RWE group have not proceeded, one of the people said.

Berlin is currently seeking to reduce its stake in Uniper to a blocking minority, either via a sale to a strategic or financial player or by selling shares via a so-called re-IPO in a deal that could value the firm at up to €14 billion ($15.4 billion) if net cash is included.

The energy firm, Germany's biggest gas importer, was bailed out by the German government in 2022 for €13.5 billion to save it from collapse after former main supplier Gazprom suspended deliveries of the fuel in the wake of the Ukraine war.

Germany's Finance Ministry, which oversees Berlin's 99.12% stake in Uniper, as well as Brookfield, CPPIB, Equinor, KKR, RWE and Centrica also declined to comment.

EPH was not immediately available for comment.

($1 = 0.9065 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Additional reporting by Michael Kahn and Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Louise Heavens, Nick Zieminski and Tomasz Janowski)