Jul 19 2007
IPSCO Inc. and SSAB Svenskt Stal AB (SSAB) announced today that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has issued the final order approving the Plan of Arrangement whereby SSAB Canada Inc., a subsidiary of SSAB, will acquire all of the outstanding shares of IPSCO.
As previously announced, on May 3, 2007, IPSCO and SSAB entered into an agreement providing for IPSCO to be acquired by SSAB for U.S. $160 per share in cash for a total equity value of approximately U.S. $7.7 billion. IPSCO and SSAB have received shareholder and all regulatory approvals that are a condition to the completion of the transaction. The completion of the arrangement remains subject to the satisfaction of the remaining conditions specified in the arrangement agreement, which are described in the Management Proxy Circular dated June 11, 2007 that was mailed to shareholders of IPSCO and is available on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com. IPSCO and SSAB expect the transaction to be completed on July 18, 2007.
IPSCO is a leading producer of energy tubulars and steel plate in North American with an annual steel making capacity of 4.3 million tons. IPSCO operates four steel mills, eleven pipe mills, and scrap processing centers and product finishing facilities in 25 geographic locations across the United States and Canada. The Company's pipe mills produce a wide range of seamless and welded energy tubular products including oil & gas well casing, tubing, line pipe and large diameter transmission pipe. Additionally, IPSCO is a provider of premium connections for oil and gas drilling and production. IPSCO trades as "IPS" on both the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges.
SSAB is a Swedish based publicly traded corporation with a leading European position in Quenched & Tempered heavy plate and EHS/UHS steel sheet. The Group comprises four divisions: Division Sheet and Division Heavy Plate are the steel operations with steel shipments of 3.1 million metric tonnes in 2006, Plannja is a processing company in building products, and Tibnor is the Group's trading arm supplying a broad product range of steel and metals. The Group has sales revenues of almost U.S. $ 4.6 billion. SSAB has 8,800 employees and has operations or offices in over 40 countries and a worldwide sales presence.