MIDEA Group Co. and Qingdao Haier Co. are among suitors that submitted bids for General Electric Co.’s home appliances business, after a sale to Electrolux AB fell apart last month, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

    The unit has attracted separate offers of more than US$3 billion from the Chinese companies, the sources said. Midea, China’s biggest maker of air conditioners and rice cookers, is working with banks to arrange financing for a purchase. The Foshan-based company and Shandong-based Haier submitted offers last week along with at least two other potential buyers, the sources said.

    GE is seeking another suitor for the century-old appliance unit after the Electrolux deal collapsed following opposition from the U.S. Justice Department. The business is likely to fetch more this time than the US$3.3 billion Electrolux agreed to pay, one of the sources said.

    Midea is China’s biggest manufacturer of consumer appliances, with a 17.1 percent market share in 2015, followed by Qingdao Haier with 7.9 percent, Euromonitor International data show. Haier had a 1.1 percent share of the U.S. consumer appliance market last year, according to Euromonitor.

    Haier Group Corp. plans to expand in the North America market, according to a representative for the group, who declined to comment on whether the company has submitted a bid for GE’s home appliances business. Any offer for the unit would be made by the group, rather than its listed units, the representative said Tuesday.

    This is at least GE’s third attempt to unload the appliances business, which introduced an electric toaster in 1905 and a home electric washing machine in 1930. (SD-Agencies)