today

“Its an amazing result . . . I don’t know how they can justify paying that price,” said one banker who was at the auction.

A source close to Tata said: “Tata was able to pay such a high price given Tata Steel’s recent bumper results, reported on Tuesday, which showed a 28 per cent rise in net profit on the previous year. So that put a spring in their step and the outlook for steel is for another bumper year, which will drive up the valuation multiples..”

Some would say that the high bid may mean early redundancies in Wales, but basically by the standards of international steel firms, Tata has a fairly good reputation still, even after Singur which was simply one incident out of many and even there you could say they were trying to help. Certainly I have mainly known of good at Pimpri/Cinchwad, as far as the workers are concerned but there are many new issues in the modern world, such as greenhouse gases.

IMO: I am almost inclined to blame the greed of the city of London if there have to be early redundancies at Corus.