It will be announced with the company’s annual results on Wednesday. Guy Dollé is also expected to set out a growth strategy for Arcelor as an independent company.
Mittal Steel, which has tabled a $23 billion (£13 billion) hostile bid for Arcelor, reports its annual results a day later. Mittal, the world’s largest steel group, is run by Lakshmi Mittal, Britain’s richest resident.
Mittal outlined the offer a fortnight ago. It was immediately rebuffed by Arcelor, and received a frosty reception from the governments of France, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg. Arcelor was formed from the merger of steel companies from the four countries, and has its headquarters in the duchy.
The full detail of the offer is unlikely to be made public in a prospectus for four to six weeks, City sources said.
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Gowrie-Smith exits at SkyePharma
IAN GOWRIE-SMITH, the founder and former chairman of SkyePharma, is to bow to shareholder pressure and stand down from the company’s board. An announcement is likely to be made tomorrow.
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Gowrie-Smith has been under attack from a group of shareholders who own about 14% of SkyePharma, and who are unhappy with the drug developer’s underperformance. The rebels are pressing for the appointment of Bob Thian as chairman in place of Jerry Karabelas, who has been a director of Skye for five years. Karabelas and Frank Condella, appointed as chief executive last week, on Friday met Henri Meier, the former Roche finance director who controls a key 9.3% stake in the company through HBM Partners, his investment firm.
In his first interview since the row broke out, Gowrie-Smith said Skye’s new management team “absolutely blitzes Bob Thian in terms of the credibility they bring to the challenges of SkyePharma”.
He added: “I would be most surprised if HBM does not come out in favour.”
Gowrie-Smith, 57, said he was “worn out” by the struggle to build a successful drugs business, and intends to concentrate on his mining interests Tiberon Minerals, Triple Plate Junction and Rift Oil. He plans to float Rift on AIM in the next few weeks.
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Golfers despairing at seeing their drives veer inexplicably off-course could soon be able to get their hands on a new ball that flies straighter. Nanodynamics, based in Buffalo, New Jersey, is in talks with manufacturers after it received clearance from the United States Golf Association (USGA) for its hollow metal core technology.
The company claims the hollow core shifts the NDMX ball’s centre of gravity to the outside, causing it to spin less in the air and reducing hook or slice.
The initial batch of sample balls have now received USGA clearance, paving the way for them to be used in major tournaments. Keith Blakely, chief executive of Nanodynamics, said: “Now that the initial hollow metal core has been approved, we should be fine as long as we don’t stray too far from the basic idea.”