Arrium Sells 50.3% Stake in Steel & Tube in NZ

Arrium sold its majority stake in Steel & Tube, a New Zealand company, for $74 million. The sale is expected to drastically reduce the more than $2 billion debt of the steel, mining and mining consumable company that used to be known as OneSteel.

The Asian consortium Steelmakers Australia offered last week to buy the 50.3 per cent stake of Arrium in Steel & Tube for $1 billion, but Arrium rejected the deal. The consortium was led by the Noble Group, a Hong Kong commodities trader and POSCO, South Korea's steel giant.

Steel & Tube is New Zealand's biggest distributor of steel products which enjoyed NZ$405.4 million sales in the 2012 fiscal year.

The sale of Arrium's stake in Steel & Tube is the result of a steel review which also led to the sale of the company's Piping Systems business. Despite the sale, Arrium said it will retain strong business links with Steel & Tube and remain one of its major trading partners in New Zealand.

Prior to the announcement of the sale, Arrium shares on Tuesday decline 2.78 per cent and closed of $0.788.

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