May 10 (SeeNews) - Slovenian white goods manufacturer Gorenje [LJE:GRVG] said it has selected Chinese group Hisense as the best bidder in its tender for a strategic partner.
Hisense has offered to pay 12 euro ($14.2 million) per share for 50% plus one share of Gorenje, the Slovenian company said in a Ljubljana bourse filing on Wednesday.
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The selected bidder has committed to launch a takeover intent within 15 days and a takeover offer in accordance with the statutory deadlines.
"The process of the exploration of strategic partnership opportunities has thus been completed," Gorenje noted.
Earlier this week, Gorenje said it received three binding offers from potential Asian strategic partners. A day later it noted it has asked two bidders to improve their offers.
In March, Gorenje invited three companies into the due diligence phase of its search for strategic partner, after receiving five non-binding offers.
All three are based in Asia, they are active in the household appliances industry and have submitted offers to acquire a majority stake in the company, Gorenje said at the time.
The appliances maker hopes that with the help of a strategic partner it can pursue the growth of business, strengthen brand power, access prime distribution channels and accelerate product innovation and business digitalisation.
In November 2016, Japan's Panasonic decided not to increase its stake of 10.74% in Gorenje.
($=0.8428 euro)
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