Business Activities News
- Deadline for Arcelor buy pushed to June 30
Date: 23-Jan-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
LAIWU Steel Co., in which Arcelor Mittal has agreed to buy a stake, said the companies had extended their deadline for the stalled purchase to take place until June 30.
If on that date there is a 'reasonable chance?that the deal will go through in the near future, the deadline will be extended further to Sept. 30 this year, Laiwu said in a brief statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Saturday.
Arcelor, in the process of merging with Mittal to form the world's largest steelmaker, agreed last February to buy a 38.41 percent stake in Laiwu, China's eighth-biggest steel firm. The acquisition was to be completed by March 31, 2007.
But the deal has so far failed to win approval by the government, and it is opposed by the influential China Iron and Steel Association, which represents most of China's mills, on the grounds that it would give too much control to a foreign company.
'The share transfer agreement is still being reviewed by the relevant government departments,'Laiwu said without elaborating.
If the government approves the deal, Arcelor Mittal will own stakes in two of China's leading steel firms - Laiwu and Shenzhen-listed Valin Steel Tube and Wire, which has been bought by Mittal. In each case it would have just short of a controlling stake.
Meanwhile, Laiwu and nearby Jinan Iron and Steel Co., China's seventh-largest mill, are due to merge under a plan by the Shandong Provincial Government to create the country's second-largest steelmaker.
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