Mr Cooper Group Inc fka COOP

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Blackstone Group LP, KKR & Co. and TPG agreed to pay a combined $325 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that a number of private-equity firms colluded to keep down the prices they paid for companies during the debt-fueled takeover frenzy preceding the financial crisis, people familiar with the matter said.

Documents are expected to be filed with the U.S. District Court in Boston as soon as Thursday outlining the settlement and asking a judge to approve it, one of the people said.

KKR KKR -0.87% in a regulatory filing Thursday said it agreed to settle the suit on July 28 without admitting wrongdoing. Blackstone BX -0.28% and TPG also reached the agreement in recent weeks and are likely to not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement, the people familiar with the matter said.

The case was brought by lawyers for investors who sold their shares in 27 companies to a number of private-equity firms as part of several boom-era buyouts. At issue is whether the buyout firms, which had a tendency around that time to team up to acquire multibillion-dollar companies in what are known as club deals, had agreements to not compete with each other on certain deals, thus driving down prices paid to shareholders.