GE Plans to Acquire 20% of Korea Heavy Industry

General Electric (GE) of the United States plans to acquire 20% of Korea Heavy Industry's (KHI) equities. The 20% stake is equivalent to approximately (U.S.) 700 million dollars.
According to Korea Electric (KE) on October 2, Jack Welch, chairman of GE, who is now visiting Korea, met with Chang Young Sik, president of KE on October 1 and announced his intention to acquire KHI's equities. KE owns a 40% share of KHI and GE intends to acquire half of KE's 40% equities.
The GE Chairman also stated that GE intends on acquiring 49% of the equities of Korea Electric Engineering which is a nuclear power generating facility company and a subsidiary of KE.
KE, a state owned company, announced that it would consider GE's proposal seriously according to the government's privatization plan and sell its equities according to the regulated procedures including a public bid.
Meanwhile, chairman Welch added that GE would expand the purchase of products from KE by 100 million dollars next year and buy more than 1 billion dollars worth of products from KE for the next 15 years.