Nov 12 (Reuters) - Fire protection and security company Tyco International Ltd TYC.N has approached private equity firms offering to sell its Korean security unit Caps Co, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Tyco sent information memoranda only to a few private equity firms as it wants to proceed with the sale quietly, the WSJ reported. ( http://link.reuters.com/dug64v )

Morgan Stanley, Tyco's adviser for the potential deal, approached Seoul-based private equity firms MBK Partners, Carlyle Group CG.O and CVC Capital Partners, the newspaper reported.

MBK has hired Goldman Sachs as its adviser, while neither Carlyle nor CVC are known to have sought advisers, the WSJ reported.

The newspaper said the value of the deal was not known and it was not clear why Tyco wants to sell the unit.

Tyco could not be reached for comment by Reuters outside of U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Varun Aggarwal in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey)

((varun.aggarwal@thomsonreuters.com)(within U.S. +1 646 223 8780, outside U.S +91 80 6749 6234)(Reuters Messaging: varun.aggarwal.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: TYCO UNIT/OFFER