Four suitors chase GE appliances

General Electric named South Korea's LG Electronics as a contender to buy its appliance business, which is valued at $4-$8 billion…

General Electric named South Korea's LG Electronics as a contender to buy its appliance business, which is valued at $4-$8 billion.

Others in the running include China's Haier Electronics Group Co Ltd, Mexico's Mabe and Turkey's Arcelik.

Major Asian appliance makers such as Haier and LG have been cited as likely suitors since GE, the second-largest US company by market value, said earlier this month it may part with its century-old appliances unit. The unit had 2007 revenues of $7.2 billion.

"The players have become somewhat obvious," GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt told reporters on Wednesday while visiting South Korea. "It is Haier in China, it is LG in Korea, it's Mabe in Mexico, it's Arcelik in Turkey."

LG, Immelt said, is "clearly one of the leading candidates."

"They are a great company. They already have a presence in the US," he said. "Strategically, there are many things to be admired about a combination of LG and GE Appliances."

"It will be very intriguing to see what happens," he said. "It will fill lots of newspaper articles ... for the next 6-9 months."

LG shares fell 3.6 per cent as investors digested the prospect of a big acquisition, but by 5am they traded down 1.8 per cent at 137,000 won, while the main KOSPI share index was off 0.5 per cent.