Corus to merge with India’s Tata

The deal is India’s biggest-ever foreign takeover.

Headshot Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata, the company's chairman, said Corus would function as a subsidiary of Tata Steel [AP]
The Press Trust of India quoted him as saying: “Once the shareholders approve the proposal, Corus will be delisted from stock exchanges and would function as a subsidiary of Tata Steel from April.”
 
World’s fifth largest

 

The takeover will make Tata Steel, the flagship of the Tata empire, the world’s fifth-largest steelmaker, vaulting from 56th place after it beat Brazilian rival CSN in a bidding contest for Corus in January.

 

At a function marking the 168th birthday of the company’s late founder, Tata said: “An integration committee will be set up to oversee the merger of Tata Steel and Corus.”

 

Tata said after a meeting with James Leng, Corus’s chairman, that the committee would comprise representatives from both companies.

 

Leng is likely to be deputy chairman and serve as a director on the Tata Steel board, a company official who wished not to be named told AFP by telephone from Jamshedpur, where Tata’s largest steel plant is located.

 

No job cuts

 

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The Anglo-Dutch steel firm Corus has an $18 bn
annual turnover [GALLO/GETTY]

The combined entity will have annual output of around 25 million tonnes and more than 87,000 employees.

 

Tata said in Jamshedpur that there would be no job cuts after the merger.

 

The Indian steel firm, part of the wider Tata group which includes business interests ranging from tea to software to automobiles, has $3.8 bn in annual turnover while Corus has $18 bn.

 

The Indian tycoon also said Tata Steel was looking for an overseas acquisition to supply it with iron ore and coal.
Source: News Agencies