Steelmaker Salzgitter has announced that a consortium led by fellow German companies TSR Recycling and GP Guenter Papenburg is considering submitting a voluntary public takeover offer to take the producer private.
The offer should be subject to the condition that the sum of at least 45pc plus one share is acquired by the consortium, Salzgitter said.
GP Guenter Papenburg, which provides construction services,is already a Salzgitter shareholder, owning 25.1pc of the company.
The German state of Lower Saxony instead is in control of 26.5pc of the business.
The sum outlined by the German steelmaker as a prerequisite for the takeover includes the shares already held by GP Guenter Papenburg.
The decarbonisation of the steel industry is set to significantly drive up scrap consumption, which has led market participants to project that European institutions might look to implement an export ban down the line.
A takeover of this type would help the steelmaker secure its future scrap supply, given TSR Recycling's exposure to the scrap procurement and processing business.
Salzgitter last year bought scrap recycling and trading company Must-Metalle-Container Recycling as part of a programme to expand its scrap processing capacity.
The German steelmaker also recently secured a €303mn green steel loan backed by Italian state-owned financial groups and various European banks, on top of EU-approved €1bn ($987mn) state aid funding granted two years ago.
