Alcoa moves to regulatory stage of Alcan purchase

US aluminium producer Alcoa has moved to the regulatory stage of its hostile bid for its Canadian counterpart Alcan.

The company said yesterday it had filed with US anti-trust authorities to gain approval for the proposed $27 billion deal.

"We have a well-developed, detailed roadmap to resolve regulatory issues through targeted divestitures in the appropriate industry segments," said Alain Belda, Alcoa chief executive, in what looks like a veiled response to Alcan’s accusation it had no such "road-map".

Alcoa has made it clear from the start it is prepared to divest some businesses to pass the regulatory hurdle. Although any deal would leave the new company with a big share of upstream primary metal production, it is on the downstream operations of the two businesses, particularly in sectors such as aerospace, that anti-trust regulators are expected to focus.

So far, despite a huge amount of media speculation, this remains a straight two-way battle with no third party yet throwing its hat into the ring.