UK's Vesuvius weighs Austria-based rival RHI Magnesita's £1.37 billion bid; shares jump

By Reuters News

Sept 29 (Reuters) - British engineering firm Vesuvius VSVS.L said on Tuesday it was assessing a £1.37 billion ($1.81 billion) cash-and-stock bid from Austria-based RHI Magnesita N.V RHIM.VI, sending shares up 31%.

The bid comes after Vesuvius rejected a series of proposals from RHI Magnesita over the past year. The latest proposal, valuing Vesuvius at 551 pence per share, represented a 47% premium to its closing price on Monday.

Vesuvius' stock was last up 23% at 461 pence on Tuesday, on track for its biggest intra-day gain since late 2008. RHI's London-listed shares fell 3%.

The UK firm said the latest proposed bid received support from Cevian Capital, its largest shareholder, based on LSEG data.

Both Vesuvius and RHI Magnesita make heat-resistant materials that line furnaces, ladles and vessels used in extreme high-temperature industrial processes such as steelmaking.

Vesuvius, in its first-half results in July, said its steel division lost market share as it has been grappling with rising costs, operational challenges and supply chain issues in North America.

The company traces its origins to 1916 in Pittsburgh, when the Arensburg brothers and their friend Arthur Jackman produced clay graphite crucibles for melting steel to capitalise on the American steel industry boom.

($1 = 0.7557 pounds)

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