Frankfurt: Tata Steel is likely to offer to sell parts of its European packaging act-ivities to secure regulatory approval for a planned joint venture with Thyssenkrupp, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The two steelmakers on Wednesday agreed an eight-day extension to a deadline for submitting remedies to the European Commission, which has been concerned that the combined entity could hurt competition in some areas.
The people said no final decisions have been made and remedy proposals could still change or be amended before the new April 1 deadline. The Commission aims to wrap up its antitrust investigation into Tata Steel and Thyssen-krupp’s tie-up by May 13.
Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel last year agreed to combine their European steel activities in a 50-50 joint venture to cut overcapacity and create a more powerful challenger to market leader ArcelorMittal.
Offering some packaging steel assets would address one of the areas that have been singled out by the Commission in its antitrust review. Under their deal, both companies would own about half of the European packaging steel market, industry sources have said.
Thyssenkrupp declined to comment. A spokesman for Tata Steel said it was not appropriate to comment or speculate on the process. “Both companies are committed to working closely with all relevant regulators to ensure the success of this transaction,” he said.
In the financial year 2017-18, Tata Steel Europe made ¤1.03 billion euros ($1.2 billion) of sales from packaging steel for food, paint and aerosol cans, among others, accounting for about 13 per cent of total revenues. This is slightly less than the 1.16 billion euros generated by Thys-senkrupp’s packaging steel unit Rasselstein in 2015-16.
