Hostile for a change

30 January 2006 By Rob Cox Follow @rob1cox

The number and size of unsolicited deals suddenly jumped. What is it about the environment that emboldens Mittal, Linde and others? Partly it’s concerns the credit environment won t remain so easy, accommodating shareholders and oldfashioned CEO confidence.

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On Friday, Mittal Steel offered nearly E19bn in cash for Arcelor, the European steel company, in one of the biggest hostile takeovers ever. The offer comes as Arcelor succeeded in acquiring Canada's Dofasco in a hostile $5bn bid earlier in the month.

Last week, Britain's BOC said it rejected a takeover offer from Germany's Linde. On January 3, German chemicals group BASF made an unsolicited offer for Engelhard. The US company rejected the offer as too low and said it will conduct an auction of itself.

So far this year, there have been four hostile bids worth $30bn. Last year, there were 85 such deals worth $192bn, down from 109 bids worth $251bn in 2004, Dealogic said.

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