The Hindu Business Line : Tata Steel completes NatSteel acquisition

TATA Steel, which had announced in August its $486.4-million acquisition of the Singapore-based NatSteel Ltd, on Wednesday informed the BSE that it completed the transaction minus one facility in China.

The facility, one of three for NatSteel in China, is expected to be aboard before April-end. An amount of $60 million has therefore been deducted from the initial payment, which amounted to $364.8 million. "The balance payment is subject to adjustment for net working capital and other adjustments as will be determined by the closing audit," Tata Steel's statement said.

The board of NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd has been reconstituted to induct Mr B. Muthuraman, Managing Director Tata Steel, as its Chairman and Mr Oo Soon Hee as its Managing Director. Other Tata Steel officials inducted into the board are Dr T. Mukherjee, Deputy Managing Director (Steel), and Mr Koushik Chatterjee, Vice President (Finance).

The transfer of the Changzhou Wujin NatSteel Company Ltd to NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd is delayed, as the regulatory approval for the former is pending with Chinese authorities. In August, Tata Steel had said that the entire steel business of NatSteel would be spun off into a wholly owned subsidiary called NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd. Tata Steel has now subscribed to 100 per cent of NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd's equity.

Consequently, all steel assets of NatSteel Ltd in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia and China (except Changzhou Wujin NatSteel) have been transferred to NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd. These include regulatory approvals received for the transfer of Southern NatSteel (Xiamen) Company Ltd and Wuxi Jingyang Metal Products Company Ltd, both in China.

"Pursuant to the supplemental subscription agreement, the company has held back $60 million from the initial payment that would be released on successful transfer of Changzhou Wujin NatSteel Company Ltd to NatSteel Asia Pte Ltd, which is expected to be completed before the end of April 2005," the statement said. About 40 per cent of NatSteel's capacity is in Singapore.

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