CSN fails in bid to buy stake in Cimpor - report

CSN fails in bid to buy stake in Cimpor - report
23 February 2010


Brazilian steelmaker CSN failed in its bid to buy 33.3 per cent plus one share of Cimpor after some large shareholders refused to sell, two Portugal-based newspapers said in their online editions on Monday.

CSN only gathered firm offers for about 10 per cent of Cimpor’s stock, well below its target of at least a third plus a share, Diario Economico and Jornal de Negocios reported, without saying how they obtained the information.

Portuguese investor Manuel Fino’s Investifino holding company refused to sell its 10.7 per cent of Cimpor, Diario Economico said. The pension fund of bank BCP, which holds another 10 per cent of the cement producer, backtracked from an initial plan to tender its stock to CSN, Jornal added.

Had it been successful, CSN’s revised offer could have triggered a full takeover bid. Under Portugal’s securities laws, a company can hold a stake of up to one-third in another company without being obliged to make a takeover bid. If the stake is larger than that, a bid must be presented.

The results of CSN’s offer, which expired earlier in the day, will be unveiled on Tuesday, both papers said.
Published under Cement News