British regulator orders auction for Corus
Britain's takeover regulator set rules Friday to end a bidding war for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group PLC.
The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers said India's Tata Steel and Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional must take part in an auction Tuesday for Corus, one of the world's largest steel and aluminum producers.
The winner would be declared Wednesday or Thursday, the panel said.
CSN's latest public offer for Corus is $11.4 billion. Tata's is $11 billion.
"On the basis that neither offeror has declared its offer final, such that either offer may be increased or otherwise revised, a competitive situation continues to exist," the panel said in a statement.
Tuesday's auction will "provide an orderly framework for the resolution of this competitive situation," the statement continued.
The takeover panel said it would let the bidders go through as many as nine rounds of confidential bidding.
Corus was formed from the 1999 merger of Koninklijke Hoogovens N.V. of the Netherlands with British Steel PLC. A takeover by either CSN or Tata would create the world's fifth-largest steelmaker. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International
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