Ispat to buy Usinor units

PARIS, Mar 2: Steelmaker Usinor said today it had agreed to sell its Unimetal, Trefileurope and SMR specialty steel units to Ispat for an...

PARIS, Mar 2: Steelmaker Usinor said today it had agreed to sell its Unimetal, Trefileurope and SMR specialty steel units to Ispat for an undisclosed price.

Usinor said details of the deal have still to be discussed but that both companies hope to complete the transaction by May 31. The annual sales of the three units total about 600 million euros ($ 684 million).The shedding of the three units is part of a move by Usinor to shed its specialty steel activities to concentrate on flat steel and stainless steel products.

The company is expected to announce shortly the sale of Ascometal, which specialises in steel for the auto industry, and Sogerail, which makes rails.Unimetal, which makes steel wire and bars for the automobile and construction industry, ran up accumulated losses of 122 million euros between 1995 and 1997.

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Ispat, which is quoted on the New York stock exchange, had sales of $ 2.4 billion in the first nine months of 1998. Its headquarters is in the Netherlands but it operates in Britain andin India.Usinor said last year it was expecting to sell operations totalling 1.6 to 1.8 billion euros and complete the selloff by June this year.

It has already sold its Forcast unit to Akers of Swedenand its Valdunes unit to US company Standard Steel, and ceded 75 per cent of its Ugo unit to Thyssen of Germany.

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