Haier Group (China) bids US$1.3bn for Maytag

[donsu]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/GF23Ad01.html


China's leading home appliance maker Haier Group has made a bid to buy Maytag, the third-largest appliance maker in the United States, for US$1.28 billion. Maytag has received preliminary non-binding proposals from Haier America Trading LLC, private equity companies Bain Capital Partners LLC and Blackstone Capital Partners IV LP, the US company announced Tuesday on its website. But Haier Group did not give any response.

According to Maytag's announcement, the consortium offered to acquire all outstanding shares of Maytag for US$16 per share cash, higher than the previous bid by Ripplewood Holdings LLC. On May 19, Maytag had agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by Ripplewood for US$14 per share cash. Maytag's stock has been traded above US$14 a share since May 20 amid speculation it would receive a higher bid.

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"Haier is looking for a new way to achieve its globalization," said Lu Renbo, an industry expert from the Development Research Center of the State Council. Previously, Haier expanded overseas through product exports and establishing manufacturing bases abroad. "The purchasing of a local, big name company may be the best and the fastest way for Chinese home appliance makers ," Lu said.

With its established brand name and, especially, well-developed marketing and sales networks, the purchase of Maytag would give Haier an edge in the US market. Haier considers the US a key market and started local production in the US in 2000, producing 500,000 refrigerators a year at a South Carolina production facility. Haier's bid for Maytag follows other big Chinese companies which have looked to boost their presence in the US market through mergers and acquisitions. Most famously, leading domestic PC maker Lenovo bought IBM's unprofitable PC business for $1.25 billion last month. It was also reported that China National Offshore Oil Corp offered $20 billion for US oil major Unocal.
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meanwhile

[OneBlueSky]

1. so what happens when ALL US industry is owned by foreign interests? . . .

seems like a rather dangerous trend . . . isn't Canada doing something about limiting foreign buyouts of Canadian companies? . . . might be a good idea here, too . . .

[Bluebear]

2. Bush family ties to China run DEEP. Adios, US manufacturing!

CHICAGO — When President Bush arrives in Beijing on Thursday, he'll embrace a policy that's something of a family tradition.

Bush's approach centers on promoting U.S.-China economic ties. That's a course favored not only by his father, the first President Bush, but also by his uncle, Prescott Bush Jr., a longtime acquaintance of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

The Bush family's ties to China go back to 1974, when President Nixon named George Bush ambassador to China. The college-age George W. Bush spent two months in China visiting his parents during his father's two-year stint.

Seven years after his brother left the ambassadorial post, Prescott Bush made his first trip to China. He later joined with Japanese partners in 1988 to build a golf course in Shanghai, the first in China. He met Jiang, who was then the mayor of Shanghai.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002/02/19/usat-prescott-bush.htm