3 Bidders Vying for Kodak’s L&F; Products : Corporations: Firm seeks up to $2 billion for household products unit. It plans to sell two other divisions by year’s end.

Eastman Kodak Co. is close to selling its household products division to one of three leading bidders: Colgate-Palmolive Co., Unilever, and Reckitt & Colman, a person familiar with the bidding said.

The division, which makes Lysol cleaners and other household products, is expected to sell for $1.7 billion to $2 billion, analysts said.

On May 3, Eastman Kodak said it planned to sell L&F; Products, its Sterling Winthrop pharmaceuticals unit and its Clinical Diagnostics unit to reduce debt and concentrate on its core imaging business.

The sales were seen as the first major step by Kodak’s new chairman, George M.C. Fisher, to revive the company’s lagging profit. Last year, Kodak posted a loss of $1.5 billion.

Charles Smith, spokesman for Kodak’s health businesses, said the company is “on track” to complete the sale of all three units by the end of the year. The sale of L&F; could be announced as early as this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Last month, the company said it expected the three businesses to fetch at least $5.4 billion, above some estimates.

Kodak agreed in June to sell Sterling’s prescription drug business to Sanofi for $1.68 billion in cash and Sanofi’s stake in the companies’ European over-the-counter drug venture. Sterling’s over-the-counter business, which includes Bayer aspirin, remains on the block.

Clorox Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. were once interested in L&F;, but they bowed out of the negotiations as the bids increased, said the Kodak source, who asked not to be identified.

Colgate, Unilever, Reckitt and Goldman, Sachs & Co., Kodak’s investment bank, declined to comment on the sale.

Kodak’s shares rose 12.5 cents to $47.75 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Unilever, the Netherlands-based packaged-goods giant that makes Aim and Closeup toothpaste and Dove soap, and Reckitt, the maker of Colman’s English-style mustard, are pursuing L&F; as a way to enter the U.S. market, analysts said. Colgate wants to protect its domestic turf, where its sales are flagging, they said.

The bids for L&F;, which posted 1993 sales of about $1.4 billion, are higher than Kodak originally expected, analysts said.