Tata Steel to sell UK-based TCP by February
Wednesday, 29 December 2010, 07:31 IST
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Jamsedpur: Tata Steel plans to sell its UK-based Teesside Cast Products (TCP) plant for $500 million in two months and will use the proceeds to repay its European debts, a top company official said. "We will close Teesside Cast Products plant sale within two months. The proceeds will be used to repay our European debt," Tata Steel Managing Director H M Nerurkar told reporters here last night. He, however, did not reveal the amount of European debt. Earlier, Tata Steel's UK subsidiary Corus said it had signed an MoU with Thailand's largest steel producer Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) to sell the TCP unit. "We hope, we will reach a conclusion by February. SSI will pay $500-million for buying the Teesside plant," Nerurkar said, adding there is in-principle approval for the sale with SSI. Tata Steel's European operations account for two-third of its global capacity of about 30-million tonnes. Nerurkar denied reports that the company was considering selling assets at its South African unit Tata Steel KZN, which it set up in 2006. "We have no plans to sell the South African assets," he said. The company's plant there which has an annual capacity of 150,000 tonnes, produces high carbon ferrochrome and charge chrome. Referring to acquisitions, Nerurkar said, "if we get good mining companies, we will buy. Purchasing mines has become expensive as valuations of such assets are quite high, basically due to high Chinese demand." "We are constantly looking into countries in terms of raw materials, basically Australia and South Africa. If we get, we will certainly consider buying," he added.
Source: PTI
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