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Bidders jostle for unit

(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-03 10:36

A Huawei Technologies mobile phone on display at a Beijing exhibition. [China Daily]

Groups led by Bain Capital LLC and Silver Lake Partners are the leading bidders for a stake in the handset unit of Huawei Technologies Co after General Atlantic LLC pulled out, sources said.

AEA Investors LLC, which had teamed up with General Atlantic, may seek to join Bain or Silver Lake, the sources said, asking not to be named because the talks are confidential. AEA, which counts CV Starr & Co and Qatar Investment Authority as partners, is also considering pursuing its own bidding group, the sources said.

Offers for the unit of China's biggest phone equipment maker will likely be submitted this month, they said.

The unit may be valued below the $4 billion estimated three months ago as slowing global economic growth, falling prices and rising material costs erode earnings at mobile phone makers. Foxconn International Holdings Ltd, the world's largest contract maker of handsets, has tumbled 70 percent this year to make it the worst performer on Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index.

"The handset industry as a whole isn't looking good right now," Jenny Lai, an electronics analyst at CLSA Ltd in Taipei, said. "Consumers have less to spend and that's putting pressure on pricing and margins."

Buyout firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, Carlyle Group, Blackstone Group LP and TPG Inc didn't get past the first round of bidding after they were invited to make offers, the sources said.

Morgan Stanley is advising Huawei on the sale, while Bain's group has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co and UBS AG. Deutsche Bank AG and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc are advising the Silver Lake-led group. Nick Footitt, a spokesman at Morgan Stanley, and Ross Gan, a spokesman for Huawei, declined to comment, as did the banks advising the bidders.

Unlike industry leaders Nokia Oyj and Samsung Electronics Co, unlisted Huawei makes handsets stamped with its customers' brands.