Thousands of Indians didn’t offer prayers for Tata Steel to clinch the deal for the AngloDutch steel maker Corus, as they have for the recovery of hospitalized Bollywood superstars. Nor did they erect 40-foot billboards of a smiling Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Steel, after he won Corus. And the stock markets were clearly concerned about the Tata Steel’s new debt load.
But despite all this, euphoria gripped the nation. Finance minister P. Chidambaram offered unspecified help, if needed, to close the deal; fellow steel magnate Lakshmi Niwas Mittal cheered the acquisition, and excited TV newsreaders gushed. India’s first Fortune 500 MNC was born. Tata acquired Corus, which is four times larger than its size and the largest steel producer in the U.K. The deal, which creates the world's fifth-largest steelmaker, is India's largest ever foreign takeover and follows Mittal Steel's $31 billion acquisition of rival Arcelor in the same year. Over the past five years, Indian companies had made global acquisitions for over $10 billion. The Tata bid almost equals this amount. Most of them have averaged
The Deal
The deal (between Tata & Corus) was officially announced on April 2nd
, 2007 at a price of 608 pence per ordinary share in cash. This deal is a 100% acquisition and the new entity will be run by one of Tata’s steel subsidiaries. As stated by Tata, the initial motive behind the completion of the deal was not Corus’ revenue size, but rather its market value. Even though Corus is larger in size compared to Tata, the company was valued less than Tata (at approximately $6 billion) at the time when the deal negotiations started.
But from Corus’ point of view, as the management has stated that the basic reason for
supporting this deal were the expected synergies between the two entities. Corus has
supported the Tata acquisition due to different motives. However, with the Tata
acquisition Corus has gained a great and profitable opportunity to make an exit as the
company has been looking out for a potential buyer for quite some time.
The total value of this acquisition amounted to ₤6.2 billion (US$12 billion). Tata Steel
the winner of the auction for Corus declares a bid of 608 pence per share surpassed the
final bid from Brazilian Steel maker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) of 603
pence per share. Prior to the beginning of the deal negotiations, both Tata Steel and Corus
were interested in entering into an M&A deal due to several reasons. The official press
release issued by both the company states that the combined entity will have a pro forma
crude steel production of 27 million tones in 2007, with 84,000 employees across four
continents and a joint presence in 45 countries, which makes it a serious rival to other
steel giants.
The official declaration of the completed transaction between the two companies was announced to be effective by Court of Justice in England and Wales and consistent with the Scheme of Arrangement of the Tata Steel
Scheme on April 2, 2007. According the Scheme regulations, Tata Steel is
required to deliver a consideration not later than 2 weeks following the
official date of the completion of the transaction.
The process has started on September 20, 2006 and completed on July 2, 2007. In the process both the companies have faced many ups and downs. The details of this process
has described below.
September 20, 2006 : Corus Steel has decided to acquire a strategic partnership with a Company that is a low cost producer
October 5, 2006 : The Indian steel giant, Tata Steel wants to fulfill its ambition to
Expand its business further.
October 6, 2006 : The initial offer from Tata Steel is considered to be too low both by Corus and analysts.
October 17, 2006 : Tata Steel has kept its offer to 455p per share.
October 18, 2006 : Tata still doesn’t react to Corus and its bid price remains the
same.
October 20, 2006 : Corus accepts terms of ₤ 4.3 billion takeover bid from Tata Steel
October 23, 2006 : The Brazilian Steel Group CSN recruits a leading investment
bank to offer advice on possible counter-offer to Tata Steel’s bid.
October 27, 2006 : Corus is criticized by the chairman of JCB, Sir Anthony
Bamford, for its decision to accept an offer from Tata.
November 3, 2006 : The Russian steel giant Severstal announces officially that it will
not make a bid for Corus
November 18, 2006 : The battle over Corus intensifies when Brazilian group CSN
approached the board of the company with a bid of 475p per
share
November 27, 2006 : The board of Corus decides that it is in the best interest of its will shareholders to give more time to CSN to satisfy the pre- conditions and decide whether it issue forward a formal offer
December 18, 2006 : Within hours of Tata Steel increasing its original bid for Corus to
500 pence per share, Brazil's CSN made its formal counter bid for Corus at 515 pence per share in cash, 3% more than Tata Steel's Offer.
January 31, 2007 : Britain's Takeover Panel announces in an e-mailed statement that after an auction Tata Steel had agreed to offer Corus investors 608 pence per share in cash.
April 2, 2007 : Tata Steel manages to win the acquisition to CSN and has the full voting support form Corus’ shareholders.
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