Tata ready for fresh offer for Corus steel plant

London, Jan 15: The Tata Group is reported to be readying for afresh offer for Corus steel plant, setting up the end of January as thelast date for offers set by the Takeover Panel.

On the other hand the city sources said a new offer by the companywill be made within a week. Most do prefer the Indian group to theBrazilian CSN.

A Sunday paper said Tatas will outbid the 5.9 billion dollars offer on the table from CSN.

Mr Ratan Tata has to decide on a new offer until the end ofJanuary, but the expectation is that he is preparing to increase hisoffer to 550p a share, well above the 515p bid from CSN's chairmanBenjamin Steinbruch and will make it known soon, possibly later thisweek. This was reported by the Observer.

Earlier Tata had offered 455p for Corus, raising it later to 500p.Corus management was ready to welcome the Indian group when CSN raisedits own offer to 515p.

Corus shares have been trading at well above the CSN offer priceand closed on Friday up 4p at 540p. This is due to the almost surebelieve that a fresh bid will come soon, much before the end of themonth.

The only doubt is that as there are major expansion plans of Tatain Asia itself the group would not enter in a bidding race any furtherif CSN outbids it again.

The merger with either Tata or CSN would create the fifth largeststeel group in the world with a combine output approaching 24 milliontonnes of steel a year.

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