The Hindu Business Line : Essar Steel ready to increase offer for Esmark

Mumbai, June 6 Essar Steel Holdings Ltd (Essar), a part of Essar Global Ltd, has informed Esmark board of directors that it was ready to consider a potential increase to its April 30, 2008 offer to acquire Esmark Inc at $17 a share.

Esmark is a vertically integrated steel producer and distributor with a significant customer base in the Ohio Valley and Midwest regions.

Essar said that it would also consider making an increased bid after it obtained additional information from Esmark.

Essar, on the invitation of Esmark and UBS, the firm’s financial advisors, participated in a bidding process for the sale of Esmark shares and its offer was unanimously accepted by the Esmark board.

Following Esmark’s acceptance of Essar’s offer on April 30, Essar entered into a memorandum of agreement with Esmark to acquire Esmark Inc at an estimated enterprise value of $1.1 billion, which includes a proposed tender offer for a cash purchase price of $17 a share of all outstanding shares of the Nasdaq listed steel company.

Simultaneously, at Esmark’s request, Essar extended a $110 million loan to Esmark, which helped the company address a potential default.

As part of the acquisition strategy, Essar proposed a capital expenditure programme of $525 million for Esmark’s Ohio and West Virginia manufacturing facilities, over the next five years.

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