China's Hisense Wins Bidding to Take Over Slovenia's Gorenje

(Bloomberg) -- Gorenje d.d. chose China’s Hisense Electric Co. to take over the Slovenian appliance maker. Its shares jumped as details of the bidding process were emerging.

Hisense, which was picked among three companies that submitted binding bids Tuesday, offered 12 euros ($14) a share for the Velenje, Slovenia-based company, according to a statement on Gorenje’s website Wednesday. That values Gorenje at almost 293 million euros, according to Bloomberg calculations. Hisense’s offer is subject to its purchase of 50 percent plus one share of the Slovenian target. The suitor committed to launching "a takeover intent within 15 days and to a takeover offer in accordance with the statutory deadlines."

Gorenje has been seeking a partner to strengthen its finances and invest in its development after Panasonic Corp. abandoned its plan to take a holding in the company and possibly take it over in 2016. Gorenje shares surged 6.6 percent to 6.8 euros, a one-year high, on Wednesday before the announcement of Hisense’s winning bid.

The two other companies which had been among the top bidders, Haier Electronics Group Co. Ltd. and Hefei Meiling Co. Ltd, are also based in China, according to a Delo newspaper report Wednesday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Boris Cerni in Ljubljana at bcerni@bloomberg.net, Misha Savic in Belgrade at msavic2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Andras Gergely, Paul Abelsky

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