Charterhouse is close to selling French engineering group Fives to AXA Private Equity, people familiar with the deal said, potentially the second big sale for the British private equity firm in just one week.

AXA Private Equity - the private equity arm of French insurer AXA - beat a handful of other buyout houses, including BC Partners, Cinven and PAI in an auction process run by Rothschild, two people said.

A deal with AXA Private Equity would mark a second big sale for Charterhouse, just days after the British-based firm agreed the sale of energy analysis group Wood Mackenzie to Hellman & Friedman.

The deal could see Fives, which makes production lines and plant facilities for car manufacturers and other industrial groups, valued at more than 1 billion euros ($1.25 billion), press reports have said.

Fives last year won contracts to renovate the Togliatti production plant of Russian car maker AvtoVaz and baggage carousels at Paris's Orly airport.

Fives reported sales of nearly 1.3 billion euros in 2011 and operating profits before amortisation of 99 million euros, a 15 percent increase on the previous year, according to the company's website.

This article is copyrighted by Reuters