Webpage address: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6315823.st
Date: 31-01-2007
Summary:
The company Tata from India has won the race for Corus, the European steelmaker. Corus is the merger of British Steel and Hoogovens. Tata beat its Brazilian rival CSN. During the auction Tata’s bid was the highest with 608p per share, valuing Corus at £5,75bn. The take-over will create the world fifth-largest steel group.
This morning shares from Corus raised 7%, whereas shares from Tata fell 6% in morning trading. But the Tata Steel director JJ Irani said: “From a small player , we will now become a big player in the world market”. Corus employs 47.300 people worldwide, including 24.000 in the UK. The Tata Group which for example also owns Deawoo cars, has operations in more than 50 countries.
Opinion:
In the past we saw Hoogovens, a Dutch company, and British Steel become one. Together they became Corus. Today there was a next step: Tata took over Corus for an enormous bid of £5,75bn. I think that’s how it goes. Big players take over the smaller players. So in the end there will be some big companies and the smaller will be gone.
This gives me a sad feeling. Even though Tata said it won’t cost jobs in the future, I think it will. For smaller companies to survive they have to become one. With the earns of selling Corus, there will be new money to create new investments, which will create new jobs. So after all, I think it’s not so bad.
1 comment:
Hello Hugo,
I do not agree with you! How many Dutch companies are still in Dutch hands? This means the money goes abroad and Dutch jobs will vanish. I fear a world with only a few major players like microsoft and such. For me as a communist that's a nightmare!
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