Big step by Corus in divesting aluminium interests

Big step by Corus in divesting aluminium interests

Corus decided to sell most of its aluminium operations in Belgium and Germany as well as interests in joint ventures in Canada and China, to a French metals and packaging company called Pechiney against £ 543 million. The Anglo-Dutch group is aiming to use the earnings attained via this sale to reduce its debts from a total of £ 1.2billion down to some £ 650 million. The Group has two aluminium smelters, one in Delfzijl, the Netherlands and the other at Voerde in Germany. According to the information obtained from the company authorities Corus will keep these smelters until the negotiations with the interested parties are concluded The 20% stake in Canadian aluminium smelter Alouette is already sold against £108million. Corus authorities announced earlier that they are aiming to sell off the aluminium assets by the end of the year and concentrate mainly on the carbon steel business. It appears that Corus would need to try hard to recover profitability as the group, being under restructuring, had to face weak economic conditions in the market as well as overproduction which put pressure on the steel prices and resulting in the company to declare a loss of £ 234 million for the first half of 2002. Under these circumstances the sales of the aliminium operations to Pechiney is seen as a good sign towards progress to profitability.