Keith McLoughlin, CEO of Sweden's Elix, said Elix was interested in buying Daewoo Electronics if Iran's bidding rival failed to buy Daewoo, the bankrupt Korean appliance maker.
Last year, Daewoo's creditors agreed to accept an offer from Iran's Entekhab Industrial Group, abandoning Elix's bid. Since then, Daewoo electronic creditors have extended the validity of Entekhab's offer of 471.5 billion won ($420 million) to April 7. According to Daewoo's latest regulatory document, its sales volume was 1 trillion and 130 billion won in 2009.
"If they come back to us, we will definitely negotiate with them," Melovlin told reporters at the company's Stockholm headquarters. They know that we were interested in acquiring, and now we are still interested. If the phone rings, we will answer.
In 2011, Melovlin took charge of Elix, the world's second-largest appliance maker. He also said that the company is still in other acquisition negotiations, the potential acquisition targets include several companies, including air conditioning companies and manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, refrigerators and similar products to the existing Elix.
Elix's share price has fallen 16% since the start of the year, and its current market capitalization is about 50 billion Swedish kronor ($7.8 billion). Whirlpool's share price has fallen by only about 6.1% this year.
Melovlin pointed out that negotiations to acquire a 52% stake in the Egyptian Olympic Group Financial Investment Corporation were still stalled, which was related to the political situation in Egypt, but Elix was still interested in acquiring the asset.