Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group is considering making a joint bid with Magnum, a buyout firm that focuses on Spain and Portugal, for distribution assets that Gas Natural SDG SA has put up for sale, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Gas Natural, based in Barcelona, is selling natural-gas distribution assets in Madrid through an auction that has already started and which it plans to complete this year, Chief Executive Officer Rafael Villaseca said Nov. 4. Gas Natural has received offers from “six or seven interested companies,” Villaseca said that day.

Gas Natural, Spain’s largest natural gas company, this year completed the purchase of utility Union Fenosa SA to add power plants and clients as it faces greater competition in the domestic gas market. The company is now selling assets to meet competition guidelines and cut debt following that acquisition.

Carlyle, the Washington-based private equity firm, is planning a joint bid with Magnum which values the assets, including debt, at as much as 800 million euros ($1.2 billion), Dow Jones reported earlier today. A Gas Natural official declined to comment.

Magnum, which last year bought wind energy parks from Australian asset manager Babcock & Brown Ltd., was founded in 2006 by four partners including Angel Corcostegui Guraya, the former chief executive officer of Banco Santander SA, and Joao Talone, the former CEO of Portuguese utility EDP-Energias de Portugal SA. No-one was immediately available to comment on behalf of Magnum at public relations firm Estudio de Comunicacion in Madrid.

Gas-Fired Plants

Other assets that Gas Natural plans to sell are gas-fired plants with a combined capacity of 2,000 megawatts. Gas Natural is holding talks on the planned sale of the plants, Antonio Basolas, Gas Natural’s director of strategy, said Nov. 4. These units won’t be sold through an auction and the company is considering selling the plants for cash or exchanging them for other assets, Basolas said.

In July, Gas Natural agreed to sell other natural gas distribution units to Naturgas, a division of Portuguese utility EDP. Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. advised Gas Natural on that disposal.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Paris at achassany@bloomberg.net; Joao Lima in Lisbon at jlima1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 20, 2009 11:50 EST