By Anjuli Davies and Sven Nordenstam
LONDON/STOCKHOLM, March 4 (Reuters) - Two bidding groups arelining up final offers for the Swedish power grid of Finnishutility Fortum that could be worth around 6 billioneuros ($6.7 billion), ahead of a March 11 deadline, sourcesfamiliar with the matter told Reuters.
Borealis, the infrastructure investment arm of Canadianpension fund OMERS, is teaming up with Swedish pension funds forits bid.
Meanwhile the infrastructure arm of Goldman Sachs ispartnering with private equity firm 3i's infrastructurearm and sovereign wealth funds to bid for the asset, with thewinner expected to be chosen shortly after.
Fortum may be keen to have something to announce at itsannual shareholders' meeting on March 31, one of the sourcessaid, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter isprivate.
Fortum declined to comment. All of the prospective bidderseither declined to comment or could not immediately be reachedfor comment.
The auction attracted a range of infrastructure investorskeen to snap up regulated energy assets for their predictablecash flows, pushing the price up.
Those who expressed interest earlier in the processincluding Macquarie and CKI, an investment entitycontrolled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing, are no longerin the race, the sources added.
Fortum is selling its Swedish power grid as part of a trendfor European energy firms to split off their distributionnetworks to cut debt and focus on power generation and renewableenergy.
It has already sold its distribution business in Finland toa group of investors led by First State Investments and BorealisInfrastructure for 2.55 billion euros in December 2013.
It also divested its smaller Norwegian electricitydistribution business, as well as a stake in gas utility Gasum.
At the same time, Fortum has said it is ready to takesignificant development and growth steps and is looking beyondthe Nordics and Russia.
Fortum is interested in a bidding for a 66 percent stake inSlovak power producer Slovenske Elektrarne, being offered forsale by Italy's Enel, a source with knowledge of thematter said in February [ID: nL5N0VZ2TS] ($1 = 0.8980 euros) (Additional reporting by Freya Berry and Jussi Rosendahl;Editing by David Holmes)
3i Group (III)
