April 6, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1427

PARIS, April 5: Global steel giant Mittal Steel said on Wednesday it would not improve its offer for Arcelor following the European steel group’s bid to persuade its shareholders to reject Mittal’s approaches by offering them bumper payouts.

“We won’t raise the bid,” Mittal’s European chief, Roeland Baan, told AFP.

“The announcements by Arcelor have not changed anything in our position nor in our resolve neither in our ability to pursue this bid. So, very clearly we stick to what we have said we will do,” he said.

Arcelor on Tuesday sought to shore up shareholders loyalty by offering them five billion euros in share buybacks or special dividends in hopes of fending off the hostile bid from Mittal Steel.

Arcelor has been fighting Mittal’s 18.6 billion euro share-swap and cash overture, expected to be formally presented in the coming days, since Mittal revealed its intentions on January 27.

Mittal has Indian origins but is based in the Netherlands.

The governments of France, Luxembourg and Spain, where Arcelor has operations, have voiced opposition to the deal, questioning its industrial logic and expressing fears of job losses despite Mittal’s insistence that no cuts are envisaged.

Baan said on Wednesday: “They (Arcelor) said “we are going to increase the dividend”, which means they are taking cash out of the company and giving back to the shareholders, which means that the balance sheet of the company is losing value, which means that in fact the company is losing value.”

“The war has only been waged by Arcelor management or by some of the governments who have been commenting negatively but I have not heard a single shareholder saying that it (the bid) does not make logic,” he said.—AFP