Australia's competition regulator approves OneSteel/Smorgon merger |
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Thu, 07 Jun 2007 05:21
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SYDNEY (XFN-ASIA) - The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it will not oppose the merger of OneSteel Ltd with Smorgon Steel Ltd.The regulator's chairman, Graeme Samuel, said that, as a result of court-enforceable undertakings offered by OneSteel, the proposed acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in the Australian steel market.'The merged entity is likely to face strong competition from imports of steel long products to Australia, so long as speculative anti-dumping applications do not disrupt the supply of imported products,' Samuel said in statement.In March a deal allowing the merger to proceed, subject to regulatory approval, was reached between OneSteel, Smorgon and Australia's largest steel maker, BlueScope Steel Ltd which last year acquired a 19.9 pct stake in Smorgon to ensure it had a role in restructuring Australia's steel industry.Under the proposed deal BlueScope will sell its stake in Smorgon to OneSteel and acquire Smorgon's metal distribution business for an enterprise value of 700 mln aud.While BlueScope will own the distribution business, OneSteel and Smorgon will be its two main customers.At 2.00 pm here, OneSteel was down 0.04 aud at 6.60, Smorgon was up 0.01 at 2.70 and BlueScope was up 0.14 at 10.80.The S&P/ASX 200 was down 42.5 points or 0.67 pct at 6,294.1.(1 usd = 1.19 aud)bruce.hextall@xfn.com
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