Taiwanese stainless steel producer Yieh United Steel Corp (YUSCO) may bid for Outokumpu's stainless steel plant Acciai Speciali Terni (AST) in Terni, Italy, seeking to expand its international presence, according to Reuters.
The Terni-based stainless hot and cold rolled coil (HRC & CRC) producing subsidiary of Outokumpu was put up for sale as Outokumpu offered to divest it to win competition authority approval for its purchase of Inoxum, the stainless steel arm of rival ThyssenKrupp.
Acciai Speciali Terni is valued at over €500 million in Outokumpu's latest financial report, though the sales price of the company is expected to be lower than this amount.
There are three other bidders for Acciai Speciali Terni, namely, a consortium led by Luxembourg-based steelmaker Aperam and including Italian steel companies Arvedi and Marcegaglia, JPMorgan's private equity firm One Equity Partners, and private equity company Apollo.
The annual steel production capacity of Acciai Speciali Terni is 1.7 million mt.