Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts are among the global private equity firms through to the next round of bidding for a significant stake in the mobile devices division of Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker.

According to people familiar with the auction, Silver Lake and a private equity arm of Goldman Sachs are also through to the second stage. The US firms were told this week that they remain in the hunt to acquire a stake, which forms part of a deal likely to value the unit at around $4bn.