China's Changhong seeks $136 mln stake in Huayi

SHANGHAI, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Sichuan Changhong Electric Co (600839.SS), a Chinese electrical appliance maker partly owned by Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), said it will bid for a controlling stake in Huayi Compressor Co (000404.SZ) in a deal that could be worth about 1 billion yuan ($136 million).

Changhong aims to buy 97.1 million shares, or 29.92 percent of Huayi, from Huayi's parent Huayi Electrical Appliance General Co through an auction, Changhong said in a statement on Monday.

Based on Huayi's last share price of 10.42 yuan, the deal would be worth about 1 billion yuan.

Changhong, based in southwestern China's Sichuan province, in August acquired rival Heifei Meiling Co (000521.SZ) and in June sold a 1 percent stake to Microsoft as part of an alliance to jointly develop, make and market TVs, computers and other digital home-entertainment products.

Earlier this month, a court ordered Huayi's parent company to sell part of its shareholdings in Huayi, which makes refrigerator compressors, to pay debts linked to the local government of Jingdezhen, in southern China's Jiangxi province, where the company is based. (US$1=7.3583 Yuan) (Reporting by Samuel Shen; Editing by Edmund Klamann)