Corus EBITDA to rise 25-30 per cent in 4-5 years

Our Corporate Bureau
31 January 2007

Indian corporate giant Tata Steel outbid Brazil's CSN on Corus in a nerve-wrecking auction that lasted more than eight hours. The bid which started at 455 pence per share in October, finally ended at 608 pence / share for Corus.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18, B Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel, says that they will bring Corus' EBITDA to Tata Steel's levels.

According to him, the combined EBITDA margin of 25 per cent is seen in 4-5 years. He further mentions that Tata Steel's contribution of $4.1 billion will be a combination of debt and equity.

He adds that the loan on SPV should be serviceable via Corus' operations. Muthuraman says they have not considered an overseas listing in the board meeting.

CNBC-TV18 shares with domain-b its exclusive interview with Muthuraman:

Could you give the markets some guidance about what could be the consolidated EBITDA of the two entities maybe in 2008-2009, once you consolidate operations?
I can't give you answers specifically about 2008-2009, EBITDA and so on. But the basic idea is that over time and over the next few years, the attempt is to bring the EBITDA level of Corus approaching to the EBITDA level's of Tata Steel. It will happen in many ways.