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Consolidation to return

November 20, 2009 - 00:00 GMT

While the peak in steel industry consolidation is now a distant memory, the probability of a fresh wave of merger and acquisition activity is high, writes Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu’s Nicholas J. Sowar and Daniel T. Schweller.

It seems a lifetime ago – some 200 deals with a total value of over $73bn. That was in 2007, just two years ago and at the peak of consolidation activity in the steel industry. A new reality has since emerged as the global economic downturn put merger and acquisition (M&A) fever on ice. Freezing credit markets sent the economy plummeting and financing to support transactions all but disappeared. As a result, the number of deals completed in 2008 fell 25% to around 160 deals, and deal values dropped more dramatically by 58% to $31bn. ‘Megadeals’, like the 2007 move by India’s Tata Steel to acquire Corus PLC, which elevated the company into the ranks of the world’s top-10 global steel producers, and the 2006 merger to form the 103m tpy ArcelorMittal appear to be a distant memory. As signs of economic recovery emerge, talk of consolidation activity is starting...

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