Nairobi, April 19 -- Plans by European private equity group CVC Capital Partners to sell tea estates it purchased from Unilever in Kenya less than three years ago have run into headwinds as a consortium of local cooperatives fight to rival Sri Lanka's Browns Investment Plc and agricultural firm Sasini for the multi-billion shilling assets.

Insider sources said that CVC Capital Partners has received bids by Sasini and Browns even as community groups and a consortium of local cooperative societies stepped up a fight to be included in bids for the Lipton Tea assets, which include tea plantations and leaf processing factories.

In the latest development, an association of communities from Kericho, Bomet, Nakuru, Nandi, and Narok counties has...