Hindalco Industries Ltd. has reportedly submitted bids for the leading aluminium rolled products manufacturer Aleris. The non-binding offer valued at around US$2.5 billion (including debt) has been made by the India aluminium giant’s U.S. unit, Novelis Inc., sources preferring anonymity said.
However, there is no certainty that Novelis would proceed to make a binding offer for the Ohio-based aluminium rolled products company, and other firms could also come up with similar bids.
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Aleris, owned by Oaktree Capital Group LLC and Apollo Global Management LLC, had earlier agreed to a buying bid from the Chinese-origin Zhongwang USA LLC. The deal was valued at US$2.3 billion. It got called off in November last year after the U.S. officials raised a series of national-security concerns.
Novelis, on the other side, boasts a strong balance sheet and is evaluating potential growth opportunities in the downstream aluminium vertical. The company swung to profit last quarter buoyed by the rising LME aluminium prices. It raised its pretax earnings guidance for the financial year 2017-2018.
Overseas acquisitions by the Indian companies nosedived to an eight-year low of US$4.25 billion in 2017. Any deal by Hindalco and/or its subsidiary could help reverse that decline in the medium term, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
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