Brazilian steelmaker CSN (Companhia Siderurgica Nacional) announced Friday it was offering 4.75 pounds per share to acquire Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus, valuing the deal at roughly 8 billion dollars. The bid tops a standing offer of 4.55 pounds per share from India's Tata Steel, which Corus management had already recommended shareholders accept.
CSN said it would fund the acquisition through internal resources and loans from Barclays, Goldman Sachs Credit Partners, and BNP Paribas, without selling assets. The company argued that a combined CSN-Corus entity could rank among the world's five largest steel groups, with annual revenues of around 25 billion dollars.
Corus was formed in 1999 from the merger of British Steel and Dutch Hoogovens and currently employs about 47,300 people, producing over 18 million tonnes of steel annually. CSN, founded in 1941 and privatized in 1993, produces 5.8 million tonnes per year with roughly 8,000 employees.
Analysts had anticipated counter-bids following the Tata announcement, though some market observers noted that Corus shareholders may still favor Tata due to concerns about Brazil's domestic economic outlook. The bidding contest follows Mittal Steel's 32-billion-dollar acquisition of Arcelor earlier in 2006, a deal that accelerated consolidation across the global steel industry.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in November 2006, in its own words.