The market has been trouncing Corus Group shares for several months, but in the past couple of weeks the decline has been especially dramatic. For much of February 25 the Corns share price was trading at under 13p, a value that gave the company a market capitalisation of only around 400m pounds less than the 700m euros that Pechiney has offered to buy some of Corus's aluminium assets. The aluminium sale lies at the heart of the market's loss of confidence. Corus's UK executive management, led by chief executive Tony Pedder, wants to sell most of its downstream aluminium assets to Pechiney, but these are controlled by Corus's Dutch arm. Corus Netherlands has its own supervisory board led by Leo Berndsen, whose principle function is to protect the Dutch-held assets. Berndsen and his board oppose the sale and have demanded that the proceeds be spent in the Netherlands.
展开▼
