Bhangra outnumbers Samba: Tatas win Corus

LONDON: And the winner is ......the Tatas. This is it. In the final round of the bidding which went up to over 9 rounds, the Tatas have clinched Corus with an offer of 605 pence versus CSN's last offer of 603 pence, pushing the price war up.

Sources close to the deal said that the deal was clinched in the final ninth round as CSN put in a final bid of 603 pence per share, and the Tatas topped it with 5 pence.

The details of the bidding will be announced soon. According to sources close to the deal, the bidding action was a little slow in starting off, but peaked towards the end.

At the end of a midnight frenzy, at 1 am GMT, the tired but jubilant Tata camp carried off the prize -- Corus.

This pushes the valuation of Corus to way above even the most ambitious predictions, with a valutaion of GBP 6.2 bn fully diluted equity value; adjusted debt of GBP 500 mn, and an enterprise value of a truly whopping GBP 6.7 bn. Watch this space we're bringing you updates.


Offers by Tata Steel UK Limited ("TATA") and CSN acquisitions Limited ("CSN") for Corus Group PLC ("CORUS") On 26 January, the Panel Executive announced that it had established an auction procedure which commenced at 4.30pm (London time) on 31 January.

This auction procedure has now completed and the prices of the revised offers which the offers are required to announce under Rule 2.5 of the Code are as follows:

(a) Tata - 608p in cash for each ordinary share of 50p each in the capital of Corus; and

(b) CSN - 603p in cash for each ordinary share of 50p each in the capital of Corus.