After India’s Tata Steel and Germany’s Thyssenkrupp signed a final agreement to establish a long-expected steel joint venture, Jefferies says that the concessions agreed by Tata Steel appear to be modest. Notably, the final agreement comes after months of negotiations since an initial agreement was announced in September. Jefferies noted that the concerns around lower debt transfer had been near-term overhangs, and should ease going forward.
The largest deal in Europe’s steel industry since the takeover of Arcelor by Mittal in 2006, the 50-50 joint venture – to be named Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel – will have about 48,000 workers and about 17 billion euros ($19.9 billion) in sales, Reuters reported. Notably, the mega venture will be based in the Netherlands, making it the continent’s second-largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal.
“The joint venture not only addresses the challenges of the European steel industry. It is the only solution to create significant additional value of around 5 billion euros for both Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel due to joint synergies which cannot be realized in a stand-alone scenario,” Thyssenkrupp CEO Heinrich Hiesinger said.
Jefferies said that Q1 margin should be strong for the company, but moderate going forward. Jefferies has a hold target on the shares with a target price of Rs 586. Another global brokerage firm, CLSA said that signing joint venture agreement with Thyssenkrupp will assuage a key concern.
“We continue to like the company given strong margin outlook,” CLSA noted. The target has been cut on a lower multiple, said the firm. CLSA has a target price of Rs 855 on the shares. Tata Steel shares were trading at Rs 583.75, up by more than 2.4% on Monday morning. Tata Steel Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said in a statement that the joint venture will create “a strong pan- European steel company that is structurally robust and competitive”.