European Commission unlikely to veto Arcelor's bid to buy PHS

The largest international steel producer French-Luxembourg-Spanish Arcelor expects that the European Commission (EC) will not protest against its participation in the tender for privatization of Polish Steel Mills (PHS). During his interview for Reuters, president of the group, Guy Dolle, said that the main condition for participating in the tender is presenting the will to acquire the liabilities of PHS amounting to zł. 1.6 billion, which can be afterwards transformed into shares. He has however, announced that his company is not planning to buy the debts of the steel mills, as he said "Arcelor is aiming at decreasing its level of indebtness". By the end of 2004, it wants to lower its ratio of liabilities to own capital to under 50%. (Reuters) M.M.