Financial regulators in Belgium, France and Luxembourg cleared the way for Mittal Steel to launch its €19 billion offer for rival Arcelor this week.
The three regulators said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they approved the information document relating to Mittal's cash and equity offer. "The offer period will last from 18 May 2006 until 29 June 2006 inclusive," the statement said.
Regulators in Spain were delayed by specific Spanish procedures and rules but were expected to approve the documents shortly, the statement said.
As Arcelor is listed in Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Spain, the financial regulators in all four countries were required to give their approval to Mittal's offer prospectus before shareholders can tender their shares.
Mittal Steel announced last week that it was hoping its cash and equity offer would begin this week. "We expect it to be the early part of next week, but we have been wrong before. We are keeping our fingers crossed," Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal had said.
Separately, Dutch financial regulators said today they had given their approval to Mittal to issue up to 547.57 million new class A shares to finance its unsolicited bid.