Videocon,Ripplewood in bidding for Daewoo Elec-paper

SEOUL, Dec 19 (Reuters) - India's Videocon Industries Ltd (VEDI.BO) and U.S. private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings have put in separate bids for Daewoo Electronics after they failed to buy the South Korean firm in a consortium early this year, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

Creditors of the home appliance maker are putting up the former unit of the failed Daewoo Group for sale again, aiming to wrap up the deal by around April 2008.

The Korea Economic Daily cited unnamed creditor and industry sources as saying that about 10 companies, all foreign, submitted letters of intent by the Dec. 17 deadline to buy the firm.

The report said a consortium led by an unidentified Russian bank also participated in the bidding, after it had recently proposed a private contract to buy Daewoo Electronics for about 700 billion won ($745.4 million).

In February 2007, creditors had scrapped the proposed $746 million sale of Daewoo Electronics to a group made up of Videocon and RHJ International (RHJI.BR), the holding company of Ripplewood, due to a price disagreement.

Daewoo Electronics had drawn little interest among Korean companies.

Its product line-up of refrigerators, washers and televisions was not seen as highly competitive against low-priced Chinese producers and bigger domestic rivals such as Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and LG Electronics (066570.KS).

Creditors have cut staff and sold real estate holdings and unprofitable divisions at Daewoo Electronics since the sale of the company broke down, the daily added.

They will examine the submitted bids and short-list them by early next year.

($1=939.1 WON)

(Reporting by Mee Hyoe Koo and Kim Yeon-hee; Editing by Valerie lee)