MLS Co denies interest in GE lighting assets

MLS Co, a listed Chinese lighting manufacturer, denied reports it would bid for US-based industrial giant General Electric’s remaining lighting assets, its top executive said Tuesday.

Quoting sources, Reuters reported Monday at least two Chinese companies, MLS Co and Foshan Electrical and Lighting Co, have been in talks with lenders to finance a potential bid for the assets in a deal potentially totaling $1 billion.

"Our company did not engage in the deal," Lin Jiliang, executive general manager of MLS, told China Daily.

GE China declined to comment. Foshan could not be reached for comment.

GE sent out teasers to interested parties about the sale process Monday, to be followed by information memos in a couple of weeks and a first round of bidding thereafter, a source was quoted as saying by Reuters.

In mid-February, GE agreed to sell parts of its lighting business to a company led by Joerg Bauer, a former GE Lighting executive. The move was the conglomerate’s first step in the divestiture of the lighting business.

In addition, the industrial behemoth has been exploring a sale of its industrial gas engine business, which could be worth as much as $2 billion, Reuters reported, citing another source.