The owner of automotive technology company Veoneer has kicked off a sale of its passive safety business, according to people familiar with the situation.

US private equity firm SSW Partners is working with advisers to gauge interest in the unit, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. The asset, which could fetch as much as $500 million, may draw interest from private equity firms and companies in the industry, one of the people said.

Veoneer in June completed the sale of its active safety business to Magna International Inc. The Stockholm-based firm is now focused on safety-critical electronics and finding “the best long-term home” for the remaining business, rebranded as Veoneer Safety Systems, the announcement showed.

SSW began preparing to sell Veoneer last year, Bloomberg News reported at the time. The firm was considering dividing the company into an active-safety unit and a passive-safety or restraint-control system unit, people familiar with the matter have said.

Deliberations are ongoing and the company could decide not to proceed with a sale, the people said. A spokesperson for Veoneer declined to comment, while representatives for SSW didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment made during a holiday.

Veoneer was spun off from Autoliv Inc. in 2018, after having designed and manufactured electronic safety products for two decades, according to its website.

In 2021, SSW and Qualcomm Inc. announced an agreement to acquire Veoneer at about a $4.5 billion valuation, with Qualcomm buying Veoneer’s Arriver, an autonomous-driving software business, and SSW receiving the rest. The deal was completed in 2022 and the company was delisted in New York. SSW co-founder Josh Steiner is a senior adviser at Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.