Tata Steel awaits Corus verdict on Takeover
Corus Steel announced that it has extended the deadline for CSN steel ,based in Brazil, to formally bid for the company to 20th December rather than the earlier planned 4th December which would have coincided with the shareholder's meet on whether to accept the offer made by India's Tata Steel.
Tata steel is offering Corus $7.9 billion while the unofficial bid by CSN is $8.3 billion. Due to the huge difference the board of Corus decided that it would be in the best interests of the Corus shareholders to allow CSN to formally announce its bid therefore extending the deadline to 20th December.
This has come as a blow for Tata steel as it was expecting to takeover Corus after the shareholder's meet on 4th December. The bid from CSN means that Tata would have to revise its bid for Corus and offer more than CSN, that is, if CSN does formally announce its participation.
Corus currently employs 47,300 people worldwide, including 24,000 in the UK itself, while CSN, one of the biggest firms in Latin America employs just 8,000 people.This is not the first time CSN will bid for Corus, its earlier attempt failing to do so in 2002.
This deal heavily relies on the agreement of the Corus pension trustees who are expected to discuss pension arrangements with CSN representatives this week. Corus already has about three pension schemes worth than $19.3 billion to cover payments for its current workforce and also its retired workers.
The result of this takeover would result in forming of the world's 5th largest steel making company. Earlier this year we've had the forming of the world's biggest Steel making company after Mittal Steel bought Arcelor for a whopping $34 billion.
