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DealZone

Behind the deals and deal-makers

09:31 December 6th, 2007

Daily Briefing: Deal Denials

Posted by: Chris Kaufman
Tags: DealZone

China’s Baosteel Group Chairman Xu Lejiang attends a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing October    You must mean some other Baosteel
    The Chairman of China’s biggest steel group, Xu Lejiang, says his company doesn’t have $200 billion to take on BHP Billiton’s bid for Rio Tinto, denying an earlier local media report that he had expressed interest in mounting a bid. In an interview with the Shanghai Securities News, Xu said, “I did not say this. It is a fabrication of the media.” Analysts had said because Baosteel is so much smaller than BHP or Rio, a bid would have had to have state support, which would have raised the hackles of other nations, or involved a foreign partner - perhaps from Japan. “I couldn’t see Baosteel having a snowflake’s chance in hell of getting past an Australian foreign investment review,” said Fat Prophets mining analyst Gaven Wendt. 
    Other deal denials came from Europe overnight. Germany’s Adidas said it is not a takeover target, following recent market talk that U.S. rival Nike and Japanese sports shoe maker Asics were interested in the company. Herbert Hainer said the speculation was “pure nonsense”, adding that nobody had approached Adidas. General Electric said it was happy with its current stake in French wind power company Theolia and does not plan to take control of it.
    The only deal seeming to be getting done is one for money-pit Alitalia. Air France-KLM made its long-awaited offer for the loss-making carrier and will face just one rival bid, from tiny Italian airline Air One. Germany’s Lufthansa walked away from the sale at the last minute, after reports of a management disagreement, saying an offer could have put its investment-grade debt rating at risk. Alitalia loses a million euros a day and there is unlikely to be much in the way of cash changing hands.    

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