EQT, the Nordic buy-out firm, expects to sell Contex, a Danish document scanning company, for around €160m ($200m) as a prelude to launching a new fund with a €2.5bn target.

Sources close to Contex said private equity firms were in the running to buy the business, which manufactures scanners in Denmark and has distribution offices in the US and Japan. A deal may be agreed in the next few weeks.