Russia's Evraz offers to buy rest of Highveld

(Reuters) - Evraz Group, Russia's largest steel maker by domestic volume, has offered to buy all the shares in South Africa's Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corp it does not already own.

Evraz, which owns 54.1 percent of Highveld, said on Monday it was offering $11.4 per share, 31 percent more than the price it paid to Anglo American Plc for its current stake.


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Evraz wins EU conditional OK to buy Highveld

Evraz Group, Russia's top steel maker by volume, won a conditional approval from the European Commission on Tuesday to buy South African steelmaker Highveld for $678 million.

The Commission said that, given the commitments made by Evraz, "the Commission has concluded that the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area".

Highveld, South Africa's second-largest steel maker, is the world's top supplier of vanadium, used in the production of special and alloy steels. The company is being sold by Anglo American Plc.

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EU extends Evraz deal review, vanadium at issue

The European Commission extended on Friday its review of Evraz Group's plans to buy rival steelmaker Highveld, because of potential competition problems in the market for the steel-hardening element vanadium.

The deadline on the $678 million acquisition of the South African firm by Russia's Evraz was moved to February 20 from February 6.

That will allow rivals and customers to comment on proposals by Evraz designed to address potential competitive problems centring on vanadium, used among other things to create high-quality stainless steel.

The two companies are only a blip on the world steel market, but the ore they mine contains relatively high concentrations of vanadium.

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