Arcelor Mittal investors can look to Jon Wood

Following is a letter sent to the Editor of Financial Times:

Dear Sir,

As the Arcelor board is the same as the Mittal board, it is not surprising that the independence of the Arcelor board, a company with outside minority shareholders, has been questioned by some. It is also not surprising that the independent valuation for the share exchange is also being questioned also by some ("Arcelor Mittal investors can look to Jon Wood" Financial Times, June 13, 2007).

It is a strong independent director at Arcelor who disagrees with the requirements and preferences of the controlling shareholder, especially if the director wants to continue having a relationship with the company. It is also a strong financial advisor that gives an independent exchange valuation that disagrees with the ideas of the controlling shareholder, assuming that they want to maintain a future relationship with the controlling shareholder. In both cases, erring on the side of conservative would not be surprising.

Onésimo Alvarez-Moro

See article:
Minority investors looking to pick a fight with Arcelor Mittal, the world's biggest steel company, could do worse than have Jon Wood in their corner.

The head of SRM Global, a Monaco-based hedge fund with more than $3bn under management, has a reputation as one of the sharpest and toughest negotiators in the industry.

Mr Wood is leading a campaign against the steelmaker on behalf of a group of hedge funds after Arcelor Mittal tried to force minority shareholders to accept worse terms than it originally offered following the merger of the two steel groups.

Mr Wood started his career in the early 1980s as an equity trader before setting up the derivatives department at Kleinwort Benson, the investment bank now owned by Allianz, the German financial group.

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