India's biggest private steel company Tata Steel said Oct. 20 it was delighted at the acceptance of its 4.3 billion pound ( US$ 8.07 billion) takeover offer by Britain's top steel maker Corus Steel.
"Everyone at (Tata Steel) is very excited. It is a big moment for Tata, this is a proud moment for the whole nation. This is the biggest foreign takeover ever by any Indian company," said Tata Steel spokesman Prabhat Sharma.
The deal will catapult Tata Steel, part of India's tea-to-steel Tata Group, from 56th globally to the sixth ranked steel company.
Corus was formed by the 1999 merger of Dutch firm Hoogovens and British Steel and is the world's ninth-largest steel maker, producing around 18 million tons per year. Tata Steel produced more than five million tons in the year to March 2006.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
