London: In yet another twist to the Mittal-Arcelor saga, the world's largest steel producer owned by NRI tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has expressed concern over the alleged "breach of confidentiality".
The steel tycoon alleges that his industrial plan for the takeover bid for Arcelor submitted to government officials was leaked to the French press.
According to a report in The Daily Telegraph on Friday, French newspaper La Tribune has reproduced the six-page executive summary document on its website.
It described the plan as extremely succinct, saying that the document does not specify the consequences of the acquisition of each country.
"This breach illustrates the concern that Mittal Steel has had in sharing non-public details of the industrial plan with selected stakeholders," a statement from Mittal steel said.
It also expressed "its surprise at this breach of confidentiality" and that it intends to increase security to ensure privacy.
A spokesman for Mittal Steel said, "What we have sent to the relevant governments was only ever the executive summary of the industrial plan. We would like to have meetings with these governments to discuss the plan in greater detail and are in the process of setting these up."
Mittal launched a $22.1 billion hostile bid for Luxembourg-based Arcelor in January, prompting a fierce attack from Arcelor management, as well as politicians in France, Luxembourg and Spain.
According to the plan, the board of the combined group will be enlarged and have a majority of independent directors.
The document restated promises that it will increase European presence and union representation on the board, the report said.
According to the plan, "Mittal does not envisage major restructuring programmes beyond Arcelor's current plans.
Both companies are complementary, therefore generating almost no 'redundancy' in the combined footprint."
On cutting costs, it said "There will be almost no negative impact beyond what the management of Arcelor has already announced."
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