Arcelor chief executive Guy Dolle is to be replaced in a combined Arcelor-Mittal steel entity, Arcelor chairman Joseph Kinsch said in Luxembourg on June 26. "I have spoken to Guy Dolle and he thinks that to implement the merger we should now choose a new chief executive," Kinsch told a press conference a day after Arcelor directors agreed to a partnership with Mittal Steel, the world's largest steel group.
Dolle, 64, had fiercely opposed a hostile takeover bid by Mittal when it was announced in January.
The Arcelor board also initially rejected it but eventually agreed to an offer that Mittal sweetened by about 40%.
Mittal chairman Lakshmi Mittal, appearing at the same press conference, said he hoped the "marriage" of the two groups would last.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
