ARCELOR Directors will decide the fate of the company

The Board of Directors of the European company Arcelor will consider the issue of possible transactions with Severstal or Mittal Steel. "The Council unanimously decided to gather again on Sunday on June 25 at 10 a.m. in order to decide on the latest proposals of Mittal Steel and (Owner" Severstal ") Mr. Mordashov," the official message of Arcelor said.

Earlier it was reported that the ARCELOR leadership "got acquainted with Mr. Mordashov put forward to improve the terms of the transaction." The owner of Severstal, in particular, proposed to reduce his participation in the capital of the United Company to 25% instead of the previously expected 32%.

In addition to a possible transaction with Severstal, the board of directors of Arcelor will also continue to considerate the proposal for the absorption of the company, which was made a few months ago by Mittal Steel, which is a leader in the global market of steel products.

The Arcelor administration is more inclined to merge with Severstal than to accept the proposal of Mittal Steel, but then the shareholders who began to express themselves against a transaction with the Russian company intervened.

One of the associations of minority shareholders even appealed to the Luxembourg court demanding that the annual general meeting of shareholders, which was supposed to resolve the issue of a possible merger with Severstal, was demanding to transfer the annual general meeting of shareholders.

Minority also put forward a demand that the issue should be resolved at least two -thirds of the vote of the meeting participants, while the Arcelor administration proposed limiting itself to a simple majority of votes.

Assessing the prospects of the upcoming decision, the French press suggests that much will depend on the position that the French businessman of Polish origin Romain Zaleski, today is the largest shareholder of Arcelor.

According to the French media, today it owns 7.6% of the company’s shares, which in monetary terms is about 2 billion euros and even exceeds the share of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg (5.6%), which has always been considered the first shareholder of Arcelor.

According to representatives of Arcelor, despite the unprecedented active actions, Mittal Steel failed to mobilize more than 30% of support from Arcelor shareholders. "The shareholders at their general meeting on June 30 will support the recommendation with which the board of directors will make," said the representative of Arcelor.

Thus, the fate of Arcelor should be resolved today, noted in the business circles of the Hebusuz.

A large obstacle to the recommendation of the ARCELOR management transaction with Mittal Steel is the price that the latter is ready to pay for the action of the Luxembourg company. Arcelor insists on 44 euros, and Mittal Steel, according to informed sources, so far agrees with 40 euros, ITAR-TASS reports.