A steal of a steel deal?

29 March 2007 By Nicole Lee

The Austrian specialty steelmaker has found a local white knight to fend off an unwanted approach from private equity. The 11% premium looks modest. But shareholders may never know what they missed, since CVC wasn t allowed to make a bid.

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Austrian steel producer Voestalpine on March 29 made a E3.5bn whiteknight offer to buy BoehlerUddeholm, an Austrian stainless steel business which had previously been in talks with European private equity firm CVC over a friendly takeover.

CVC had said it would only launch a takeover offer if Boehler's management recommended it. CVC said on March 21 it had an agreement with Boehler's biggest shareholder, BU Industrieholding, to buy its 21% stake.

But on March 29, the Austrian specialty steelmaker told its largest shareholder that selling its stake to CVC would not result in a sustainable shareholder structure for Boehler, and was not in the company's interest.

Voestalpine is offering E69 a share for Boehler. CVC never launched a formal offer for the company.

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