NETHERLANDS: Pictures of Corus steel mill and Dutch headquarters

India's Tata Steel is set to become the world's fifth-biggest steelmaker after winning a battle for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group with a 6.2 billion pounds ($12 billion USD) offer. The battle pushed Corus's share price to seven-year highs and pitted 70-year-old Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata, from one of India's best-known business families, against Benjamin Steinbruch, a famous Brazilian executive who is the chief and main owner of CSN. The deal, India's biggest ever foreign take-over, is expected to fuel a new wave of consolidation in the fragmented steel sector after Mittal Steel acquired rival Arcelor for $32 billion USD last year. Britain's Takeover Panel said that after an auction Tata Steel had agreed to offer Corus investors 608 pence per share in cash, a third more than its original offer and topping a final bid of 603 pence from Brazilian Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN). Both offers were at the top end of what analysts had thought possible and would now be put to Corus investors, who have no reason not to accept the higher price. Sterling, which has been nudging the $2 USD mark for several weeks, could get a boost from the deal as Tata Steel looks to buy pounds to pay Corus's British shareholders. But shares in Tata Steel fell as much as nine percent as investors felt it was paying too high a price and the purchase could strain the finances at least in the short term, but Tata said the market was being too harsh. Patrick Flockhart, Managing Director of Steel Business Briefing publication, agreed. Ratan Tata has transformed the once-staid Tata group since taking over as chairman in 1991. He has cut the number of companies in the group from over 300, and acquired new businesses with growth potential. Tata Steel has spent more than $400 million USD in recent years to buy Singapore's NatSteel and Thailand's Millennium Steel, and other group companies have also made acquisitions outside India.

ITN Source | February 1, 2007

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