Bush tells Post he’s ‘confident’ of Marlins win

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Monday he is “confident” his effort to buy the Miami Marlins will succeed.

Bush, who is part of a bidding group that includes Yankees great Derek Jeter, hopes to become the exclusive bidder for the MLB team when the auction sale is completed, he told The Post at the Milken Institute Global Conference here.

Bush said he was “confident” of becoming the exclusive bidder for the Miami Marlins when speaking to The Post Monday afternoon on the seventh floor of the Beverly Hilton.

The former governor and 2016 presidential candidate and his son were walking the hallways at the Beverly Hilton among scores of billionaires and Wall Street power brokers when he stopped to chat about the Marlins bid.

The Bush bidding team members are “hoping to learn sooner rather than later” whether they become the winners, he said. He didn’t elaborate. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last Thursday that two bidding groups — including the BushJeter group — remain in competition to purchase the Marlins from Manhattan-based art dealer Jeffrey Loria.

Earlier reports that the Marlins had chosen the Bush-Jeter group proved incorrect.

Bush is competing against unsuccessful 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his family’s bidding group, sources said. Mitt’s son Tagg is leading the effort, sources said.

Tagg was the head of marketing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mitt has long had an interest in owning a sports team, sources said.

BJ’s Wholesale Club has hired JPMorgan to find a buyer, two sources close to the situation told The Post.

The owners of the regional chain — PE firms CVC Capital Partners and Leonard Green & Partners — hope to attract $4 billion to $4.5 billion, sources said.

The two PE firms recently scrapped plans to list the company on the public markets, partially because of how poorly retailers are trading.

So far, no suitor is in advanced talks and the sale process is early, sources said.

Amazon has expressed interest internally in buying BJ’s but is not in formal talks yet about acquiring the Westborough, Mass., chain, a source close to the situation said.

The assignment is a coup for JPMorgan. It did not advise the PE firms in 2011 when they acquired BJ’s. CVC and Leonard Green used four banks on the 2011 acquisition: Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Jefferies.

The highly indebted BJ’s has not grown much since 2011, when CVC and Leonard Green bought the chain. At the time of purchase, it had 190 clubs, and in the following six-plus years, the number of clubs has grown by 12 percent.

There was speculation in 2011 that CVC and Leonard Green would expand BJ’s nationally. A new owner may still see investing in expansion as a way to improve earnings.

BJ’s and JPMorgan declined to comment.