BELGIUM: Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal says politicians will not scare him off his company's 23 billion US dollar bid for European steelmaker Arcelor

Record ID: 693753

  • Title: BELGIUM: Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal says politicians will not scare him off his company's 23 billion US dollar bid for European steelmaker Arcelor
  • Date: 2nd February 2006
  • Summary: (W3) CHATELET, BELGIUM (FEBRUARY 1, 2006) (REUTERS) METAL WORKERS AT CARINOX, ARCELOR STEEL PLANT (5 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 17th February 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA7HNB8QFG5ZXB2UGMVLGFB6B11
  • Story Text: Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal said on Wednesday (February 1, 2006) politicians would not scare him off the 23 billion US dollar bid that his company launched for European steelmaker Arcelor.
    Mittal said institutional shareholders had given a positive response to his bid.
    He also reiterated he would not accept a stake of less than 50.1 percent in the merged company and that he would move the head office of Mittal Steel to Luxembourg if it succeeds with its bid. Arcelor is based in Luxembourg. Lakshmi held a news conference after meeting with European Commissioners for competition and industry.
    'It is not a hostile, it is a unsolicited bid to the share holders with a very friendly approach. So you can decide if you want to call it hostile or not hostil. In our opition it is unsolicited bid to the share holders of the company. We want to sit down with the management of the company, we want to have a friendly discussion. At the end of the day we want to create share holders value," Mittal said. Lakshmi Mittal also reiterated in a news conference that there would be no job cuts arising from the merger.
    "The synergies which we have annouced of a billion dollars is rising out of purchasing, trading and distribution synergies and operation synergies. So we have not planned that there would be any layoffs of redundancies in this merger," Mittal said
    The chief executive and leading shareholder in Mittal Steel said on Wednesday he would discuss the company's $23 billion bid for Arcelor with unions from the target steelmaker in the next 10 days adding he was not concerned about the reaction of unions in Spain which he is due to visit on Thursday (February 2).
    " We have unions all over the world in all of our companies. And we have a healthy relation with all of them and I am sure we will have a very good relation with the unions in Spain. We're also going to meet them in due course. We're going to meet all the union leadership in next couple of, in 10 days we planning to call on all the leadership, employee leadership and talk to them" Mittal said.
    He also said he was not scared by politicians
    "I am not really scared about politicans reaction. I feel sad about it because this is one of the best transaction for the Europe: merging of two giant companies and creating a very strong European base is very healthy news for the industry and consolidation," Mittal said.
    Earlier on Wednesday, the European Metalworkers' Federation said it strongly opposed the hostile bid by Mittal for Arcelor, joining criticism of the plan from the political leaders of France and Luxembourg.
    Europe's Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said on Wednesday that Mittal Steel will probably have to notify the Commission of its 23 billion US dollars bid for Arcelor.
    France and Luxembourg pledged to defend steelmaker Arcelor it for fear it could threaten tens of thousands of jobs.
    But Belgium, with more than 15,000 people employed by Arcelor, is staying silent.
    "Its too early to say a definitive solution now. Its time to understand what are the chances of success or not of the IPU," Belgian French speaking Socialist Party leader Elio di Rupo.
    France, Luxembourg and Spain, however are struggling to find concrete ways of blocking the bid.
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