This week, Oregon Steel Mills (NYSE:OS) received a $2.3 billion buyout offer. The buyer? Evraz Group – which is the biggest steel company based in Russia.
The deal makes a lot of sense for Oregon Steel Mills – which simply does not have the scale to compete against global behemoths.
Evraz said it will take a hands-off approach to Oregon Steel, allowing its management team to continue to run things. After all, they have done a great job over the years (profits for this year have been about $127.9 million).
Interestingly enough, Evraz also has a new owner (as of June): Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.
Actually, the steel industry is mostly fragmented in Russia. In other words, it looks like Abramovich's next move is to aggressively consolidate the industry – which has been the case with other sectors in Russia, such as oil.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.
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