Alcan Takes Hostile Run at Pechiney
Montreal aluminum giant
Alcan
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will take another run at French rival
Pechiney
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, hoping a hostile buyout offer can succeed where a friendly merger pact failed three years ago.
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Alcan is offering 41 euros for each Pechiney share, to be paid 60% in cash and 40% in new Alcan shares. Word of the offer sent Pechiney up 18% in Paris. Any transaction would create the world's biggest aluminum company by revenue, eclipsing the current leader,
Alcoa
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.
A previous merger agreement between the two companies and Swiss
Algroup
was rejected by European Union antitrust officials three years ago, and concerns that it would face the same fate were voiced by Pechiney in a statement Monday morning.
"Pechiney is astonished at the unfriendly nature of this process," it said in a statement. "The offer very significantly undervalues the economic and strategic worth of Pechiney." The antitrust landscape "is uncertain, has negative implications for the company, its employees and its shareholders."
