By Christoph Steitz
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany’s Thyssenkrupp will start giving India’s Jindal Steel International more access to financial details of its Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe (TKSE) business from next week, two people familiar with the matter said.
Jindal Steel made an indicative bid last month for TKSE, Europe’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal and Thyssenkrupp CEO Miguel Lopez told Reuters on Monday that talks were intensive.
The deepening of due diligence coincides with the visit of a Jindal Steel delegation to TKSE’s headquarters in Duisburg ahead of crunch talks planned later in the year, the people said.
Thyssenkrupp said official due diligence proceedings had started in recent weeks, including site visits by Jindal Steel, declining to comment further.
Jindal Steel, part of Naveen Jindal Group, declined comment.
PENSION LIABILITIES A KEY HURDLE
Shares in Thyssenkrupp, which were up 1.5% earlier in the day, spiked to trade as much as 3.2% higher after the news and were trading 2% higher at 1149 GMT.
While Jindal Steel may be prepared take on some 2.7 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in pension liabilities – a key hurdle to past efforts to sell TKSE – this will require Thyssenkrupp to make substantial financial commitments, the people said.
This could result in a negative equity valuation for TKSE, which employs nearly 26,000 staff, accounting for 28% of Thyssenkrupp’s total.
Brokerage Jefferies estimated TKSE’s enterprise value at around 2 billion euros.
More formal discussions come after Jindal Steel Chairman Naveen Jindal met Thyssenkrupp executives and worker representatives as well as the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia on October 8 during a trip to Germany, the people said.
As part of the plans, Jindal Steel has pledged to complete a direct reduction plant in Duisburg to produce carbon-neutral steel while committing more than 2 billion euros for additional electric arc furnace capacity.
Jindal Steel would also supply Duisburg with high-quality iron ore from its mines in Cameroon.
Labour leaders have welcomed Jindal Steel’s consensus-driven approach after slamming Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who was slated to buy half of TKSE before Jindal Steel’s interest surfaced, for failing to engage.
“The (Jindal) family understands steel and lives steel, which is very refreshing,” said Juergen Kerner, Thyssenkrupp’s deputy supervisory board chairman and a senior leader at Germany’s most powerful union IG Metall.
Jindal Steel, which has been looking to expand in Europe, last year bought Czech steelmaker Vitkovice Steel and was until recently in the bidding for Italy’s Ilva steel plant.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Alexander Smith and Tomasz Janowski)
