Daewoo Electronics: Five firms submit LOI (Korean)

Korean newspaper Money Today, reported that five firms have submitted LOIs to acquire Daewoo Electronics, the unlisted South Korean household electrical appliance maker.

These include, Tong Yang Group, a privately held South Korea consumer group, Electrolux, the Sweden-based electronics appliance maker, along with former preferred bidder New York-based Ripplewood, and household appliance makers from Mexico and the Middle East.

A little history on the sale -

• A consortium of India’s Videocon Industries and RHJ International (the holding company for Ripplewood), was initially picked as a buyer but the talks fell through in 2007 due to price disagreements.
• In the second round, a PE unit of Morgan Stanley chosen was the preferred bidder, but they pulled out of the process last August,  possibly due to labour union issues and rising anti-foreign investor sentiment the cause, according to this article.
• Interest then returned to Ripplewood who had been selected as the runner-up, but this failed again with creditors terminating talks in January of 2009, as reported here.

(Sources: Money Today, Reuters)