Mittal, Arcelor spent Rs 3,000 cr over deal

LONDON: Besides being a battle of nerves, Mittal-Arcelor saga also witnessed over Rs 3,000 crore being spent by both the companies -- an amount which is larger than market capitalisation of most of the Indian steelmakers.

While Arcelor spent huge money for making all out efforts to dissuade the Netherlands-based world's largest steelmaker from the takeover bid, Mittal went full-throttle to clinch the deal.

The two companies spent more than 650 million dollars in form of legal, publicity and banking fees, while there might have been ever more unquoted expenses involved in the six-month battle.

On conservative estimates, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal possibly spent over Rs 881 crore, but the actual spending could be higher, informed sources said.

Arcelor spent nearly Rs 1,300 crore to defend itself against the unsolicited bid besides paying Rs 822 crore to Russian steel giant Severstal as a break-up fee.

Tata Steel, SAIL and JSW Steel are the only three exceptions whose market caps are higher than Rs 3,000 crore, sources said.

The market caps of companies like Essar Steel, Ispat Industries, Jindal Stainless, Bhushan Steel and Usha Martin are between Rs 600-2,400 crore, while JSW Steel's market value stood at nearly Rs 4,450 crore at the end of today's trading session.