Brazilian steelmaker CSN (CSNA3.SA)(SID.N) is offering a sizable premium to two key shareholders of rival Usiminas for their 26 percent voting stake in the company, a local newspaper said on Friday, in what could mark the prelude to a bidding war for the troubled mill. Under a proposal by Sao Paulo-based CSN, Brazil's second-largest maker of flat steel products, industrial conglomerates Camargo Correa and Grupo Votorantim could receive between 33 reais and 39 reais per common share they have in Usiminas, O Estado de S. Paulo said, citing an unnamed source familiar with the situation. That could value the deal between 4.34 billion reais and 5.14 billion reais ($3.09 billion), according to Estado and Thomson Reuters calculations. CSN called "unfounded" a report on Thursday that it made a formal unsolicited bid for the combined stake of Camargo and Votorantim in Usiminas. Usiminas said in a Friday security filing that it did not know of any offer by CSN to purchase a stake in the company.
Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) is an integrated steel producer in Brazil and Latin America. Shares of SID fell by 3.49% or $-0.34/share to $9.39. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $8.01 and as high as $18.41. On average, 5684750 shares of SID exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 302424.
Source
