Lakshmi Mittal's ArcelorMittal and Tata Steel have increased efforts to place takeover bids for Essar and Bhushan Steel. The former is working with Goldman Sachs to prepare bids for both the assets. A team reportedly visited the sites in recent days as part of the due diligence process. Tata, meanwhile, visited Bhushan Steel and followed it up with Essar. It will stay focused on chasing the two biggest steel assets referred to the National Company Law Tribunal as part of the bankruptcy resolution process.
The Tatas are being considered as a strong contender for Electrosteel. Tata chairman N Chandrasekaran and group CFO Saurabh Agrawal have taken keen interest and are assessing a renewed domestic build-out for Tata Steel as the sector shows signs of a cyclical recovery. A final decision on the bidding is yet to be taken. Even though eight suitors have submitted expression of interest and collected preliminary information from Essar Steel, the race is essentially between ArcelorMittal, the Tatas, and the Ruia family which is partnering Russian bank VTB to retain an asset with 10-million-tonne capacity and £4.20 billion debt.
Others interested are Anil Agarwal's Vedanta, distressed asset buyers SSG Capital and AION, Steel Authority of India and Japan's Nippon Steel. Promoter Singals are likely to make efforts to keep the integrated steel-maker with 5.6 mt capacity and £4.50 billion debt. Intense lobbying in the recent weeks have been conducted to disallow defaulting promoters from reacquiring assets.
