Corus to list 46.8 mn shares on LSE

Corus Group Plc on Friday said it will list 46.8 million additional equity shares for trading on the London Stock Exchange.

The Anglo-Dutch steel major has applied to the UK Listing Authority and the London Stock Exchange for a block listing, totalling 46,871,000 ordinary shares of 50 pence each to trade on LSE, according to information available on Corus' website.

The block listing consists of shares to be issued on conversion of 3 per cent Guaranteed Unsubordinated Bonds due in 2007, it said.

However, this additional share issue would not have any implication on the proposed takeover of the company, as this was taken into account by India's Tata Steel whose acquisition offer was passed by the Corus Board but is yet to be approved by shareholders.

Shares of the company were trading at 505 pence down one per cent on the London Stock Exchange on Friday.

The company's scrips have been in demand ever since Tata Steel offered to buy it and more so after Brazil's CSN launched a counter bid that valued Corus shares at 475 pence each.

In June, there were some 891,787,432 Corus shares in issue, which are traded on the London and Amsterdam Stock exchanges.

Corus has around 1,58,000 registered shareholders and institutional investors, who account for around 90 per cent of total shareholders, while remaining 10 per cent mainly represents private individual investors.