Advisors make $200 as Mittal clinches Arcelor deal

27 June 2006

Mumbai: Merchant bankers Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank AG, Merrill Lynch & Co are among 13 firms that will share more than $200 million in fees as Mittal Steel closed his five-month battle to acquire Arcelor SA.

Mittal, whose €26.9-billion ($33.7 billion) revised bid was accepted by Arcelor''s board, is paying five banks about $100 million while Arcelor will give an equal amount to eight banks. JPMorgan Chase & Co and Lazard will get fees from the Belgian government.

Mittal''s advisers included teams from Citigroup, HSBC, Credit Suisse Group and Societe Generale SA''s Laurent Meyer. Arcelor''s advisors were led by Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Merrill, BNP Paribas SA and UBS AG.

Banks are now increasingly gaining from mergers and acquisitions around the world, which touched a record 1.7 trillion amidst continuing profit growth for companies.

Auto stocks stumble: In Mumbai, stocks of automobile companies dived amidst the euphoria at the success of Mittal Steel''s battle for Arcelor, on expectations of an imminent surge in steel prices.

Share prices of the domestic automakers and auto component firms plunged as much as 9 per cent on Tuesday on the Bombay Stock Exchange in a panic reaction to an expected consolidation and price increase across the global steel market.