Charterhouse Capital Partners is reviving a sale of nuclear measurement and analytics company Mirion Technologies Inc., which could fetch more than $2 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

ESSENBACH, GERMANY – OCTOBER 12: The cooling tower of the Nuclear Power Plant ‘Isar 2’ is pictured behind a security fence on October 12, 2010 in Essenbach near Landshut, Germany. (Photo by Alexandra Beier/Getty Images) Photographer: Alexandra Beier/Getty Images Europe

The buyout firm has hired Lazard Ltd. to manage the deal, after halting a previous attempt run by Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley in 2019, the people said. It plans to kick off a sale process in the coming weeks after receiving interest in Mirion from potential suitors, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

Discussions are at an early stage, and Charterhouse may decide to keep Mirion if bids come in too low, the people said. Private equity firms, strategic bidders and special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are likely to consider offers, the people said.

Mirion provides devices and services for customers who work with nuclear energy — monitoring and measuring radiation and contamination, providing alarms and managing waste, according to its website. Sector applications include nuclear power, health care, military and homeland security.

After initially gauging interest from potential buyers in 2019, Charterhouse decided to keep the asset for longer to expand the business further, one of the people said. Since then, it’s made a number of acquisitions to expand Mirion’s footprint in the medical sector.

Mirion announced in January that it was buying Sun Nuclear Corp., which manages quality assurance for radiation treatments at cancer centers. It acquired calibration technology firm Capintec Inc. last year. In 2018, it purchased Nuclear Research & Consultancy Group’s dosimetry unit, which makes products used to measure workers’ radiation exposure.

Any deal would add to the $28.3 billion of private-equity divestments of European companies this year, up 86% from the same period in 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Mirion generates more than $170 million of annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, one person said.

Representatives for Charterhouse, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Lazard couldn’t immediately comment.

Mirion was formed from the 2005 merger of three businesses in the U.S. and France. Charterhouse acquired the San Ramon, California-based industrial firm in 2015 for $750 million.