Brazilian steelmaker CSN, which is in the race to acquire Corus Group along with Tata Steel, is not new in the global M&A space - it has held merger talks in past with Germany's Thyssen-Krupp and Luxembourg-based Arcelor, besides its current Anglo-Dutch target. While CSN's all previous attempts to find a suitable partner have been unfruitful, the company does not expect the ghosts from the past to spook away the chances in its latest attempt to acquire the London-based steel giant."CSN is moving ahead with its due diligence process for its proposed bid for Corus as quickly as possible and talks are going on with the pension trustees of the target company," a senior official close to the development said from Rio de Janerio, Brazil.The Brazilian company had held merger talks with Thyssen-Krupp about five years ago in 2001, but talks failed due to various strategic disagreements between the two sides.The rationale behind the proposed merger was to make a world-wide combination of assets strategically based on iron ore, railways and ports, the official said.In another bid to expand its presence in the global steel space, CSN had discussions with Arcelor earlier this year, when the European major was looking for alternatives in its bid to thwart off a hostile takeover bid from Mittal Steel.Besides, CSN had held unsuccessful merger talks about four years ago with its current target Corus.However, a company official said today failure in the previous merger talks would not have any impact on its proposed acquisition of Corus, for which the Latin American company is yet to come out with a formal bid.
