UPDATE 1-Oakfield bids most for Czech Aero

(Adds other bidders, background)

PRAGUE, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Oakfield, a unit of investment group Penta, bid the most for Czech military jet maker Aero Vodochody, state agency Konsolidacni Agentura said on Wednesday.

Oakfield bid 2.91 billion crowns ($130 million) for the company and receivables due to the state, Konsolidacni said in a statement.

Aero makes sub-sonic L-159 military jets and civilian airplane parts, and also owns an airstrip near Prague which could potentially become a commercial airport, but has struggled to find customers for its jets.

The government is selling a 99.97 percent stake in Aero and two debts owed by Aero to the state worth a nominal 5.5 billion Czech crowns and $215 million respectively.

The second-placed bidder was a consortium of investment group PPF and investment bank J&T, which offered 1.72 billion crowns.

ECO-INVESTMENT was third with 1.32 billion and the last bidder, engineering firm Slovacke Strojirny bid 217 million crowns.

Price was the sole deciding factor in the tender.

The new centre-right government, which ultimately must approve the sale, has been weighing whether to go ahead with the sale, or halt it and instead sell just the airstrip for the time being.

Another option is to split the company in two, one owning the airstrip and the other focused on manufacturing, and sell them separately, Industry Minister Martin Riman said last week. ((Reporting by Jan Lopatka, editing by Quentin Bryar; prague.newsroom@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: jan.lopatka.reuters.com@reuters.net; +420-224 190 474)) ($1=22.38 Czech Crown)

Keywords: MANUFACTURING CZECH AERO