The Hindu Business Line : Ratan Tata came to know of it at The Times, London

Slice of steel story
Mr Tata was apparently discussing with the editor his plans for integrating Corus into the Tata group and the prospects for selling British-made steel in Asia
He was silent and composed on reading the news and read the same sentence over and over again

Chennai , Nov. 18

It was one of those rare and lucky coincidences for a newspaper. The Times, London, was hosting Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons, on Friday at the same time as news was breaking of the counter-bid for Corus by Brazil's CSN.

Mr Tata was apparently discussing with the editor of The Times his plans for integrating Corus into the Tata group and the prospects for selling British-made steel in Asia when his mobile phone kept buzzing, reports The Times. One of the missed calls was from Mr Jim Leng, Chairman of Corus.

But Mr Tata came to know of the counter-bid from a piece of paper handed to him while sitting in the Editor's office which had a single line from the wires: "CSN approaches Corus Group with 475 pence a share takeover proposal".

According to The Times report, Mr Tata was silent and composed on reading the news and read the same sentence over and over again.

The report quotes Mr Tata as saying that the group had no contingency plan for a counter-offer saying "Corus told us that this probably was not going to happen".

As details of CSN's bid kept coming in, says The Times, Mr Tata said: "So it is an all-cash offer". He was apparently candid and good-humoured and when the newspaper's journalists asked him about his plans for a counter-offer, he is said to have laughed saying: "We are not going to leave this office giving you any indication of what we are going to do".

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