J.C. Flowers, Cerberus enter exclusive talks over HSH Nordbank buy-sources

BERLIN/FRANKFURT, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The state owners of Germany's HSH Nordbank on Monday granted prospective buyers J.C. Flowers and Cerberus exclusivity as long-running attempts to privatise the ailing bank near conclusion, two people close to the matter said.

The buyout groups were given a certain amount of time to negotiate a deal with the German regional states of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, which hold 89 percent of the bank, one of the sources said on Monday.

J.C. Flowers - which owns 5 percent of HSH - and Cerberus submitted a joint bid with a headline price of more than 700 million euros ($860 million), a person familiar with the matter had said last week, adding it remained unclear what conditions were attached to the offer.

HSH, its owners and the bidders, declined to comment or were not immediately available for comment. ($1 = 0.8143 euros) (Reporting by Klaus Lauer and Arno Schuetze; Editing by Ludwig Burger)