Creditors of Daewoo Electronics Corp. are seeking to sell the third-largest electronics firm in Korea to a Swedish company following their failed sale efforts with the initial preferred bidder from Iran, sources said Tuesday.
Creditors including Korea Asset Management Corp. sealed a contract in last November with Iranian electronics firm Entekhab Industrial Group to sell their combined 97.5 percent stake. But the deal broke up last month after Entekhab missed the May deadline to pay for the takeover.
Ending negotiations with Entekhab, creditors are mulling signing a new agreement with Electrolux AB, a Swedish electronics firm selected as the second preferred bidder in April 2010, the sources said.
The Swedish firm plans to conduct a due diligence on Daewoo Electronics this week in order to decide whether it will start negotiations to take over the local electronics firm, they said.
“Electrolux agreed to come up with a decision within this week on whether it will start sale negotiations,” a creditor bank official said. “Unless unexpected hurdles crop up, we may be able to start price negotiations.”
Electrolux has persistently appealed to creditors to buy the controlling stake since the deal with the Iranian rival bidder recently hit a snag.
But some market observers raised skepticism over the success of the new deal with the second preferred bidder, citing the possibility that the Swedish firm could demand a price cut.
Electrolux bid 600 billion won ($553.5 million) for the Daewoo Electronics stake in April 2010, and offered to pay 30 billion won more in September when the creditors were in negotiations with the Iranian company.
State-owned debt clearer KAMCO holds the largest stake in Daewoo Electronics with 48 percent, followed by Korea Exchange Bank with 6.6 percent and Shinhan Bank’s 5.8 percent.
Daewoo Electronics, which has been under a debt rescheduling program since August 1999, is a former subsidiary of the now-defunct Daewoo Group.
