Arcelor will succeed in fighting off Mittal Steel’s USD 23 billion hostile takeover bid Arcelor’s Deputy CEO said 24 February 2006. “As the proposal is today, Mittal Steel in our opinion has no chance to succeed,” Mr Michael Wurth, Arcelor’s deputy CEO, told Reuters in an interview. “There is very little trading volume presently and the feeling we have from our shareholders is that they do not want to sell their shares.” Mr Wurth said Arcelor wants to keep Dofasco because of the 10% share of the North American auto steel market that Dofasco has built through contracts with the top five automakers. Mr Wurth said “We primarily want to grow strong with Dofasco,” he said. “We thought that Dofasco was by far the best company because of its high quality assets, strong growth prospects and the highest quality products,” Arcelor is now pulling out all the stops to thwart the Mittal offer and recently sent shareholders a letter to urge them not to cave into a bid it says underestimates the value of the company.
