Germany's Thyssenkrupp and India's Tata Steel signed a final agreement on Saturday to establish a steel joint venture. it is the European steel industry's biggest shake-up in more than a decade.
ADVERTISEMENTIndia's Tata Steel and Germany's Thyssenkrupp agreed to a merger that promises to shake up Europe's steel industry.
The finalised deal, which was signed on Saturday, means the joint venture is now the second-largest steelmaker in Europe, behind ArcelorMittal, with €15 billion in revenues.
The merger took more than two years to negotiate and ends uncertainty over the future of plants, including Britain's largest works at Port Talbot which employs 4,000 people.
Tata said its "ambition" was to not have any compulsory redundancies in the UK as part of the joint venture.
The 50/50 deal is expected to create synergies of between €400 million and €500 million a year, according to a statement by ThyssenKrupp
"The joint venture not only addresses the challenges of the European steel industry," said ThyssenKrupp's CEO Heinrich Hiesinger. "It is the only solution to create significant additional value of around 5 billion euros for both Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel due to joint synergies which cannot be realized in a stand-alone scenario."
The steel industry is under pressure
The two companies have come under pressure from overcapacity within the industry. European steelmakers have also faced 25 percent tariffs on exports to their biggest market, the US.
However, the deal cannot go ahead without securing the approval of the relevant competition authorities, which includes the European Union.
The new company will be called Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel and will be based in the Netherlands.