Micro Focus International to sell SUSE software unit for $2.5 billion

LONDON (Reuters) - British software company Micro Focus International said on Monday it had agreed to sell its Linux operating system SUSE business to a private equity fund advised by Sweden's EQT Partners for $2.535 billion.

Micro Focus said it would use some of the proceeds to reduce debt and could return some of the rest to shareholders.

SUSE, a pioneer in enterprise-grade open source software, has been part of Micro Focus since 2014 when the British company acquired The Attachmate Group for $2.35 billion.

At that time, SUSE represented just over a fifth of the revenue of The Attachmate group, Micro Focus said.

"It was clear from the outset that the SUSE Business was an outstanding business with great people, great customers and fantastic products in a vibrant and dynamic market," Executive Chairman Kevin Loosemore said.

Micro Focus said the EQT fund was paying a multiple of 26.7 times adjusted operating profit of the unit for the 12 months to end-October 2017 for the company.

The FTSE 100 company, which manages older software for customers including banks and airlines, is recovering from a major profit warning in March.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)