GE’s Immelt Cites Several Suitors For Appliance Unit

by Steve Smith -- TWICE, 5/28/2008

New York — Jeff Immelt, General Electric’s CEO, confirmed that along with LG Electronics, several other foreign companies are contenders to buy GE Appliances.

During press conferences in Seoul, Korea, and later in Bejing, China, earlier today, Immelt was quoted in reports by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal that LG — along with Haier, Controladora Mabe of Mexico, and Arcelik of Turkey — are possible suitors.

On Tuesday at a press conference, LG Electronics’ CEO Yong Nam confirmed that his company is taking a look at GE Appliances.

In Bejing, Immelt threw in Electrolux as another candidate and was quoted as saying, “The appliance process is still very early on, and much still has to be decided.”

GE Appliance could fetch between $5 billion to $8 billion, and, as previously reported in TWICE, news of GE’s sale of the business was not a surprise to the industry.

Immelt noted in one of his press briefings today that the deal will “fill lots of newspaper articles ... for the next six to nine months.”