Alcan buys small Indian firm, mum on Hindalco bid

MUMBAI - Canada's Alcan Inc. said on Tuesday it has acquired 76 percent of a small Indian firm, but declined to comment on media speculation it may bid for India's top aluminium maker, Hindalco Industries Ltd.

"The press speculates. I can't comment on that," Steve Henning, a director at Alcan Composites, a fully owned subsidiary of Alcan, told reporters on a visit to Mumbai.

The Times of India newspaper reported on Monday Alcan could team up with India's Sterlite Industries to bid for Hindalco as a way of making Alcan less of a takeover target.

Henning said Alcan Composites has bought 76 percent of Alukbond India Private Ltd., an aluminium composite panel-maker, for "less than $50 million".