| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Steel |
| Founded | Koninklijke Hoogovens N.V. in 1918 British Steel Corporation in 1967 Corus in 1999 |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Key people | Karl-Ulrich Kohler, MD & CEO Uday Chaturvedi, CTO Tor Farquhar, Executive Director Human Resources Frank Royle, Director Finance |
| Products | Steel |
| Parent | Tata Steel |
| Website | www.tatasteeleurope.com/en/ |
Tata Steel Europe (formerly Corus Group) is a multinational steel-making company headquartered in London, United Kingdom.[1][2] It is the second-largest steel-maker in Europe and is a subsidiary of Tata Steel of India, one of the ten largest steel producers in the world.[1]
Corus Group was formed through the merger of Koninklijke Hoogovens and British Steel on 6 October 1999. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Tata in 2007. On 27 September 2010 Corus announced it was changing its name to Tata Steel Europe and adopting the Tata corporate identity.
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British Steel Corporation was a large British steel producer, consisting of the assets of former private companies which had been nationalised on 28 July 1967 by the Labour Party government of Harold Wilson. On 5 December 1988 the company was privatised as a result of the British Steel Act 1988. Koninklijke Hoogovens was a Dutch steel producer founded in 1918, located in IJmuiden.
On 6 October 1999 British Steel merged with Koninklijke Hoogovens to form 'Corus Group' forming the third largest producer of steel behind POSCO of South Korea and Nippon Steel of Japan. British Steel formed about two-thirds of the merged group.
On 16 March 2006, Corus announced that it had signed a letter of intent to sell its aluminium rolled products and extrusions businesses to Aleris International, Inc. for £570m. Corus retained its smelting operations and supply Aleris under a long-term agreement. On 1 August, the sale to Aleris Europe was completed.[3]
On 30 January 2007, Tata Steel, part of India's Tata Group, purchased a 100% stake in the Corus Group at 608 pence per share in an all cash deal, cumulatively valued at (USD 12.04 Billion).[4]
Tata surprised the credit default swap segment of the derivative markets by deciding to raise $6.17bn of debt for the deal through a new subsidiary of Corus called 'Tata Steel UK', rather than by raising the debt itself. Tata's security credit rating is investment grade, whereas the new subsidiary may not be. The higher risk associated with raising debt through a subsidiary with a lower credit rating prompted Fitch Ratings to downgrade its rating of the credit swap risks in the takeover to 'negative'. Fitch also stated that Corus' responsibility for the debt may lead to Corus' own unsecured debt rating being downgraded. This does not affect the rating of bonds issued by Corus which are secured debt.[5]
On 19 November 2006, the Brazillian steel company CSN launched a counter offer for Corus at 475 pence per share, valuing it at $8.4 Billion.
On 10 December 2006, Tata preemptively upped the offer to 500 pence (the “Revised Tata Acquisition”). Other than the increased offer price, the Revised Tata Acquisition was subject to the same terms and conditions as set out in the original offer.
On 11 December 2006, CSN announced a formal offer for the Company at an offer price of 515 pence per Corus Share (the “CSN Acquisition”), valuing the deal at $ 9.6 Billion.. The CSN Acquisition would also be implemented by way of a scheme of arrangement and is subject to a pre-condition that either Corus Shareholders reject the Tata Scheme or the Tata Scheme is otherwise withdrawn by Corus or lapses. The Corus board promptly recommended both the revised offers to its shareholders.
On 19 December 2006, Corus announced the following:
In the light of the competing offers for Corus by Tata Steel UK Limited (“Tata”) and CSN Acquisitions Limited (“CSN”), the Company announced on 12 December 2006 that the Corus Directors intended to propose resolutions to shareholders at each of the reconvened EGM and Court Meeting to be held on 20 December 2006 to adjourn those meetings. The Company also stated that it would announce a proposed date for those adjourned meetings in due course.
Also on 19 December 2006, UK Watchdog the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers announced that the last date for each of Tata and CSN to announce revised offers for the Company, should they wish to do so, is 30 January 2007. They also warned that it would begin an auction procedure if the two remained in competition.[6]
On 31 January 2007, following the lack of agreement on an offer, the previously mentioned auction process was triggered. Following the conclusion of the auction process (at an unprecedented length of nine rounds) conducted by the Panel in accordance with Rule 32.5 of the Code (the "Auction"), Tata Steel announced the proposed acquisition of Corus Group at 608p per share, that being 5p more than CSN's top offer of 603p. The £6.7 billion deal includes £500 million of debt.
The Corus Group board recommended the acquisition to their shareholders later the same day.
On 27 September 2010 Corus announced that it was changing its name to Tata Steel Europe and adopting the Tata logo. The style change started with immediate effect on transactional documents but the complete branding change would take place over an unspecified period.
Since 2008, Corus and subsequently Tata Steel Europe has been structured into three divisions. These are:
Following the sale of Teesside Steelworks to SSI in February 2011, Tata now operate three major integrated steel plants:
It also has secondary rolling mills and steel product manufacturing sites situated at:
In addition it has tube mills located at Corby, Stockton and Hartlepool in England and Oosterhout, Arnhem, Zwijndrecht and Maastricht in the Netherlands. It has service centres predominantly in Northern Europe and sales offices in around 70 countries around the world. It has a color coating line in Sakarya, Turkey.
Tata is the sponsor of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in the Netherlands and the UK triathlon team.
On 26 January 2009, Corus announced job cuts of 3500 worldwide and 2500 in the UK due the economic downturn and the reduction of steel demand. It was announced that Corus's Rotherham plant would suffer the worst cutting over 600 jobs. On the same day it was announced that Corus would be closing down its defined benefit pension scheme to new members.
Corus' steel products for construction include:
Corus publish a reference guide known as the "Blue Book", which contains details of construction steel sections, and design information to use with Eurocode 3 and BS 5950.
Tata Steel Europe produce electrical steels via their subsidiary Cogent Power.[8]
Tata Steel Europe also intends to produce steel roofs that generate power, using Dyesol technology.
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