thyssenkrupp ends talks with Liberty Steel

thyssenkrupp AG late on Wednesday announced that it had ended talks on a possible acquisition of the group’s steel division by Liberty Steel. A sale of the division to Liberty Steel will therefore not take place.

“We opened the door for negotiations, but in the end our ideas about the corporate value and the structure of the transaction were far apart. We have therefore decided to end the talks,” says thyssenkrupp ceo Klaus Keysberg, who is also in charge of the conglomerate’s steel activities. “We regret this step because we perceived Liberty Steel as a serious partner in the process,” Keysberg adds

Liberty Steel had submitted an updated, non-binding offer to thyssenkrupp AG to acquire thyssenkrupp Steel Europe. There was a close exchange between the two groups on a number of complex topics. As a result, however, no common solution could be found for key requirements addressed by thyssenkrupp, it states.

During recent thyssenkrupp conference calls attended  by Kallanish, executives reiterated that they sought the most sustainable solution for the group’s steel division. They emphasised that this could mean any option – either a sale, a stock market flotation – or by keeping it within the group.

thyssenkrupp will now continue to drive forward a sustainable position for steel on its own, it says in yesterday’s statement.

“Now it is important for us to ensure the future viability of our steel business on our own,” Keysberg says. “We are working flat out on this, as we have always underlined in the past few weeks and months.”

As Kallanish went to press, neither Liberty Steel nor its parent holding, GFG Alliance, had issued a statement on the matter.