Iran’s Entekhab to buy Daewoo Elec for $513 mln

Reuters: Unlisted Iranian appliance maker Entekhab Industrial Group will sign a deal soon to buy South Korea’s Daewoo Electronics for about 577.8 billion won ($513 million), Daewoo’s leading creditor said on Wednesday.

SEOUL, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Unlisted Iranian appliance maker Entekhab Industrial Group will sign a deal soon to buy South Korea’s Daewoo Electronics for about 577.8 billion won ($513 million), Daewoo’s leading creditor said on Wednesday.

Woori Bank, which represents creditors-turned-shareholders of the unlisted Korean firm, said they will sign an official contract with Entekhab as soon as possible after receiving letters of endorsements from creditors by early next week.

The Iranian company had trumped Swedish electronics firm Electrolux earlier this year and was named as a preferred bidder for Daewoo, once the flagship unit of the failed Daewoo Group and now almost wholly owned by its 39 creditors.

It is the fourth attempt for the creditors to sell Daewoo, which focuses primarily on washing machines and refrigerators.

In the previous bidding rounds, a series of sales talks fell through with Ripplewood Holdings, a private equity unit of Morgan Stanley, and a consortium of India’s Videocon Industries and RJH International.

Export-focused Daewoo competes with bigger local rival Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics and low-cost Chinese producers.

($1=1126.7 Won)

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Ken Wills)