Mittal Steel Co. has increased the per-share price it is offering for European steelmaker Arcelor, and as of late May the business press was beginning to view the deal as likely to happen.
According to a Bloomberg News report, Arcelor’s board of directors was considering the most recent proposal while meeting in Luxembourg. The board also reportedly asked Mittal Steel to see a business plan, indicating a greater level of interest than what was demonstrated when Arecelor outright rejected the first bid in late January.
In the second offer, Mittal Steel and its chairman Lakshmi Mittal increased the offer by some 34 percent. Mittal Steel is hoping to either sway Arecelor CEO Guy Dolle, who has reacted negatively to the deal, or to persuade the board and shareholders to overrule Dolle.
Should the deal occur, the newly combined company would be an estimated three times larger than any of its global rivals, according to Bloomberg News.
In addition to Dolle, objections to the deal have also come from some European elected officials, particularly in Luxembourg, where Arcelor is based, and in France, where the company has many steelmaking facilities.
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