The first round of bidding for Hilding Anders of Sweden as well as SF cinema chain is to end this week. The bedmaker sale and the binding bids for the moviehouse chain is but a sign of a return to bullish from bearish Nordic region mergers and acquisitions market.

The majority shareholder for Hilding Anders is Arle Capital partners and is projecting a sale price of Eur1 billion or US$1.3 billion according to advisers. On the other hand, SF cinema's majority shareholder is Bonnier, the Swedish publishing house, projects a sale price between Eur200 million to Eur250 million.

Other bids were submitted for Eurocater, the food services conglomerate from Denmark. Eurocater is owned by Altor and sale price is projected at around Eur500 million.

The whole sales process for these firms is being managed by JP Morgan. All sources for the stories spoke on condition of anonymity and the parties to the bids did not make any comments.