India's Tata Steel wins auction to buy Corus with 608p/share offer |
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Wed, 31 Jan 2007 02:28
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LONDON (AFX) - India's Tata Steel won a hotly contested bid to acquire Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group PLC with a 608 pence a share offer, beating the only other bidder Companhia Siderurgica Nacional PLC (CSN) of Brazil in an auction set up by the UK Takeover Panel.CSN lost the auction with a 603 pence a share offer.Corus, the UK's largest steelmaker, received an initial takeover offer from Tata last October but since then has been the subject of a takeover battle between Tata and Brazilian steel producer CSN.The UK Takeover Panel on Friday intervened in the 4.9 bln stg bid battle because it said neither company had declared their offer final.Tata upgraded its original offer of 455 pence per share to 500 pence on Dec 10, only to see CSN up its offer to 515 pence. The European Commission had cleared proposed acquisitions by both companies for Corus.The acquisition will create the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker. Corus, which was formed from the 1999 merger of Koninklijke Hoogovens NV of the Netherlands with British Steel PLC, had sales of 10.1 bln stg and about 47,300 workers worldwide in 2005.The world's largest steelmaker, Arcelor-Mittal, was itself formed after a takeover battle, between Mittal Steel Co NV for Arcelor SA, that lasted five months.The auction procedure started after the market close at 4.30 pm GMT.vghvghCOPYRIGHTCopyright AFX News Limited 2006. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited
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Tata Steel board may give go-ahead to raise Corus bid to 600 pence/shr - report 