(Bloomberg) -- China’s Anta Sports Products Ltd. and buyout firm FountainVest Partners Co. are in discussions with lenders for at least 3.5 billion euro ($4 billion) in loans to back its potential acquisition of a Finnish company Amer Sports Oyj, people familiar with the matter said.

Buyers have proposed a 2.5 billion euro recourse facility and another non-recourse loan of at least 1 billion euros to banks, said the people who aren’t authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be identified. A total loan size of at least 3.5 billion euros could make it the biggest for a Chinese outbound acquisition so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

An external representative for the Chinese buyer consortium declined to comment. Separately an external representative for Anta and a spokesman at FountainVest didn’t immediately reply to emailed requests for comment. Calls to Amer’s Finland-based media and investor relations departments went unanswered.

Anta said last month it made a preliminary indicative offer of 40 euros per share with FountainVest to acquire Amer, valuing the target at about 4.7 billion euros. The buyout consortium held meetings in Europe with Amer shareholders in recent weeks to explain the merits of a deal, Bloomberg has reported.

Both the potential borrowing facilities for the acquisition are expected to have a five year tenor, the people said, adding that the financing would only be finalized if the Anta-led group proceeds to make a binding offer for Amer.

(Corrects to remove reference to Amer’s size in fourth paragraph.)

--With assistance from Bei Hu.

To contact the reporters on this story: Carol Zhong in Hong Kong at yzhong71@bloomberg.net;Annie Lee in Hong Kong at olee42@bloomberg.net;Manuel Baigorri in Hong Kong at mbaigorri@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neha D'silva at ndsilva1@bloomberg.net;Ben Scent at bscent@bloomberg.net

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