Posted on 23 Feb 2017
German industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp AG (TYEKF.PK) Wednesday announced that it has reached agreement with Ternium, a Latin American steel producer, on the sale of the CSA Siderúrgica do Atlântico or CSA steel plant in Brazil. The purchase price is 1.5 billion euros enterprise value.
The sale is subject to the approval of the competition authorities. The two parties aim to close the transaction by September 30.
With the closing of the transaction, thyssenkrupp will receive a clear cash inflow which will significantly reduce the company’s net financial debt.
Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO of thyssenkrupp, said, “With the sale of CSA we are parting fully with Steel Americas. This is an important milestone in the transformation of thyssenkrupp into a strong industrial group. We now generate over 75 percent of our sales with our profitable capital goods and services businesses.”
It was in 2005 that the company decided to expand its steel business into the Americas. The original plan was to produce slabs at low cost in Brazil and process and sell them in the USA and Europe. The plan didn’t work out. After Hiesinger took over as CEO, thyssenkrupp placed the entire project under review following a significant increase in construction costs for the facilities in Brazil and Alabama in the USA as well as technical problems.
