Nineteen appliance makers and financial groups, including Whirlpool Corp, J. P. Morgan Chase & Co and AIG, submitted preliminary bids for South Korea's Daewoo Electronics, newspapers reported.
The Korea Economic Daily quoted banking sources as saying that India's Videocon Industries Ltd, Turkey's Vestel and US private equity firm Newbridge Capital had also bid for the South Korean home appliances and television maker.
The paper said four South Korean companies submitted bids, although it did not identify them.
Another Korean daily, the Maeil Business Newspaper, said Germany's BSH Bosch Siemens was also among the bidders.
Both newspapers reported that China's Haier Group, which had been said to be interested in Daewoo Electronics, did not bid.
Domestic creditors, which own 97 percent of unlisted Daewoo, aim to sign a final contract by the end of September, a source at a creditor bank said in early April.
ABN AMRO, Woori Investment & Securities Co and Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers are managing the sale.
An earlier media report had put a possible sale price of up to $1 billion.
South Korean lenders are selling stakes in once-troubled companies that they bailed out in the aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
Daewoo Electronics was placed under debt rescheduling led by creditors along with its affiliates after the parent group went bankrupt in 1999, with $80 billion in debt.
It has since streamlined its businesses, focusing on manufacturing air conditioners, washing machines and refrigerators.
The company reported a 94 billion won ($96.9 million) net loss in 2005, against a 30.4 billion won in net profit in 2004, according to the company's audit report, as a stronger won put pressure on its export-led business. Sales totalled 2.16 trillion won last year.
Based in Seoul, Daewoo operates six plants in South Korea and 18 overseas units. Its assets totaled 1.65 trillion won at the end of 2005.
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