Essar steel holds key to arcelor’s india entry

Essar Steel is the best fit for ArcelorMittal to put Lakshmi Mittal’s stamp in the world’s fastest growing market, a top executive at the Luxembourg-based company said.

“We have been interested in entering India for a long time. This opportunity has come up now. We have looked at it and the other alternatives, too,” Brian Aranha, head of global strategy at the world’s largest steelmaker, told ET on Tuesday.

ArcelorMittal is one of the two bidders for debt-laden Essar Steel, which has been put on the block by its lenders. The asset offers an entry point for India-born Mittal into a market where he has been absent even as he built a global steel empire from Kazakhstan to Brazil. “We think we are in a good position to bring the asset to full potential in operative terms,” Aranha said.

He replied in the affirmative when asked whether it was a now-ornever moment for his company to get a toehold in India. “We have a good background of buying stressed assets and turning them around in many countries. In India the steel demand is growing and there is a lot of organic growth that is anticipated,” he said.

Listing out the points that make ArcelorMittal’s bid compelling, Aranha said the company had taken over distressed plants and addressed practically every kind of issue that had been run at an asset like Essar Steel. “We have the breadth of expertise and can help it achieve global scale and standards. We have done it in different political climates, be it Poland, Uzbekistan or Ukraine.”

He said Arcelor-Mittal would be the best partner for Essar Steel also because the Mittalcontrolled company has the experience and a growing technical knowledge base of products and processes, including access to an R&D base where it pumps in close to a quarter of a billion dollars every year.

Aranha was confident that the company would be able to gain the approval of bankers and comfortable with the political environment. “Our credentials are good and we have a reputation. The resolution plan we have proposed is a detailed one,” he said.

Aranha was confident that the company would be able to gain the approval of bankers and comfortable with the political environment. “Our credentials are good and we have a reputation. The resolution plan we have proposed is a detailed one,” he said.

ArcelorMittal is currently focused on Essar Steel, he said. “This is a big deal and it is time consuming.” He, however, did not rule out the possibility of eyeing other stressed assets in India as and when they come up. He did not elaborate on questions being raised about the company’s stake in Uttam Galva and whether it could derail the bid, but only added: “We have bid. I think we will be fine.”

Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, promoters of stressed companies are ineligible to bid for similar assets unless they have already cleared the arrears. Uttam Galva has been a non-performing asset on bank books for more than a year now. But, ArcelorMittal has said that it was not a promoter of Uttam Galva, but only an investor.

ArcelorMittal had done an exhaustive due diligence on Essar Steel to understand the key issues involved in the running of the plant and its operations, Aranha said. “We have done a due diligence and have proposed to address these issues in our resolution plan,” he said.