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SEOUL, May 30: Seven unidentified foreign firms and one local company have submitted preliminary bids to buy South Korea's Daewoo Electronics, a source at one of Daewoo's creditor banks said on Tuesday.

Daewoo Electronics, which makes home appliances and televisions, is being put up for sale by its domestic creditors who own 97 percent of the unlisted firm. An earlier media report had put a possible sale price at up to $1 billion.

The source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters that the deal had attracted eight bidders by the deadline on Tuesday, but declined to identify them.

''We can't reveal their names, except that the number of bidders is eight. Seven of them are foreign firms,'' he said.

Nineteen appliances makers and financial investors, including Whirlpool Corp., JPMorgan Chase&Co. and AIG, submitted letters of intent for Daewoo Electronics in late April, newspapers had reported.

India's Videocon Industries Ltd., Turkey's Vestel and U.S.

private equity firm Newbridge Capital were also reported to be in the running.

They could not immediately be reached for comments.

ABN AMRO, Woori Investment&Securities Co. and Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers are managing the sale.

South Korean lenders are selling stakes in once-troubled companies they bailed out in the aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

Daewoo Electronics was placed under debt rescheduling led by creditors, along with its affiliates, after the parent group went bankrupt in 1999 under $80 billion in debt.

It has since streamlined its businesses, focusing on manufacturing air conditioning units, washing machines and refrigerators.

The company swung to a 94 billion won ($99.16 million) net loss in 2005 from a 30.4 billion won net profit in 2004, according to the company's audit report, as a stronger won currency put pressure on its export-led business.

Based in Seoul, Daewoo operates six plants in South Korea and 18 overseas units. Its assets totalled 1.65 trillion won at the end of 2005.

REUTERS