Rival bids: It's not just Corus!

Corus may have emerged as the steel industry's most sought after belle, with Tata Steel and CSN vying to be its knight in shining armour -- but there were as many as 75 other companies who were courted by two or more suitors this year alone.

While the high-profile bidding war between the Indian and Brazilian steel makers for the Anglo-Dutch company is unprecedented in this part of the world, it is not a rarity in the global M&A arena -- at least in the recent past.

As many as 76 companies worldwide have received competing bids so far in 2006, totalling $507.7 billion via 149 deals, which marks a sharp jump of 47 per cent compared to previous year, data compiled by global financial information provider Dealogic shows.

A total of 61 companies had received rival bids valued at $345.4 billion in 2005, while the number of target companies for competing bids was less than 10 during each of the first three years of this century between 2001-2003.

Meanwhile, it is not only the number of rival bids that is soaring, the value of the bids has also increased considerably in the recent past.

The average deal value for competing bids has increased to $3.6 billion this year, which is 11 per cent higher than in 2005.

Both CSN and Tata Steel have offered more than $11 billion for Corus and this could be the biggest ever deal among all the competing bids in the steel space this year.