Bulgarian steel mill sold
SOFIA (AP) – India’s Global Steel Holdings Ltd said yesterday it had completed a deal to buy a 71 percent stake in Bulgaria’s largest steelmaker Kremikovtzi. The price of the deal was not announced. Global Steel Holdings bought the stake from Sofia-based Finmetals Holding AD. Bulgaria’s government owns a 25.29 percent stake in the steel mill, and the remaining shares are owned by individual shareholders. «Global Steel Holdings Ltd plans to invest $300 million (242 million euros) in the steel mill over the next three years,» the company said in a statement. After the deal, Global Steel reshuffled Kremikovtzi’s management, appointing Pramod Mittal as chairman of the supervisory board, and Alok Gupta as executive director, among other changes. Global Steel Holdings is a unit of India’s Ispat Group, owned by members of the Mittal family. It is not part, however, of Mittal Steel, the world’s largest steelmaker. The Kremikovtzi steel mill is the largest in Bulgaria, and accounts for 2 percent of the Balkan country’s gross domestic product and for 10 percent of the country’s exports to the EU, the company said.
