WASHING-MACHINE maker Wuxi Little Swan Co is looking to sell a 24-percent stake to large white goods companies, the company's controlling shareholder said yesterday.

Buyers must have registered capital of at least one billion yuan (US$139 million), or its equivalent in foreign currency, and three billion yuan in net assets by 2006, said Wuxi Guolian Development (Group) Co Ltd, its state-owned shareholder.

Qualified buyers must run a white goods business and remain profitable for three consecutive years, the company told the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Both overseas and domestic firms can submit an application to Guolian by Friday, and the company's shares will resume trading in Shenzhen from next Monday, the statement said.

Guolian announced earlier this month that it will transfer its entire stake in Little Swan - totaling 87.67 million A-shares - to potential buyers.

Little Swan's net profit reached 48 million yuan in the first half of last year, surging 103.46 percent from a year earlier.

The 24-percent stake could be worth between 1.6 billion yuan and 1.8 billion yuan, according to calculations by State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Media reports said Guangdong Midea Electric Appliances Co and Sichuan Changhong Electric Co are interested in acquiring the stake.

Changhong has contacted Guolian and the Wuxi government about the stake transfer but hasn't reached agreement, the country's second-largest television set maker said earlier.

Italy's Indesit, a leading home-appliance maker in Europe, is also said to be interested in bidding for a stake in Little Swan.

Indesit, which has been looking to expand in overseas markets such as China and India, had yet to make a decision.