But it also has four other banks on board – HSBC Citigroup Cr?t Suisse and Soci? G?rale

But it also has four other banks on board – HSBC, Citigroup, Cr?t Suisse and Soci? G?rale as well as lawyers, accountants and public relations advisers.Following the posting of the offer document, the bid has 30 working days to run – to 29 June.Arcelor has five days to announce any fresh measures to defend itself while Mittal can raise its bid any time up to seven days before the close.An offer to improve the terms in return for a board recommendation has been rejected by Arcelor. The posting of the document finally sets the clock ticking on Mittal’s bid, four months after its offer was first announced.
It came as Lakshmi Mittal, the owner of the steel giant and Britain’s richest man, was threatened with legal action in Ukraine where government officials claim Mittal reneged on investment promises.The lion’s share of the $100m in fees is accounted for by Mittal’s lead investment bank, Goldman Sachs. Mittal Steel’s hostile bid for the rival steelmaker Arcelor is costing it $100m (£53m) in advisory fees, it emerged yesterday. The formal offer document detailing the €22bn (£14.9bn) bid also shows that Mittal will have to spend an additional €3bn buying out minority shareholders in two Brazilian companies controlled by Arcelor.

The early indications yesterday were for more selling, particularly in the commodities sector which has been the main beneficiary of the three-year bull run the London market has enjoyed.Errol Francis, the manager of the Credit Suisse Income Fund, agreed that UK equities offer reasonable value, particularly in the large-cap stocks. “The market was due a correction after a very strong run, but markets are likely to remain volatile throughout the summer until there is more clarity on the direction of US interest rates and inflation,” he said.. During the dot boom, when the index peaked at 6,930.2, the market traded on a forward price-to-earnings ratio of nearly 22 times. According to Goldman Sachs estimates, the London market trades on about 12.5 times expected earnings.Market makers saw a dramatic increase in selling on Wednesday afternoon as fears over US inflation led to the London market falling more than 170 points.

The good thing about us being big is that we are able to give the banks a run for their money.”. London shares had a topsy-turvy day yesterday with traders still unnerved by recent share-price falls. An early-morning sell-off saw the FTSE 100 fall 56 points, wiping out all gains made this year, but it recovered to close just 3.9 lower at 5,671.6. It was just above the lowest close for the year – 5,633.8 on 24 January. However, many equity strategists remain upbeat on prospects for the year and urged investors not to panic.
Peter Oppenheimer, the head of European portfolio strategy at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, is still broadly positive on UK equities and said most of the underlying factors behind the rising equity markets remain strong. “There has certainly been a shift in inflation expectations and the last few sessions have shown a rapid reduction in appetite for risk,” he said.

“Even so, we see no problem with valuations of the UK stock market and we remain overweight in equities globally.”Even taking into account the bull run over the past three years, which has seen the FTSE 100 more than double in value, most industry experts believe London shares are not expensive. And he offered rare words of praise for Halifax, normally Nationwide’s fiercest rival He said: “Banks have started to learn some lessons They realise that customers are important HBOS is doing well – good on them. It claims to have saved customers £690m in the past 12 months from the lower fees and better interest rates it is able to offer because it does not have shareholders to satisfy.Nationwide has not faced any attempt to convert it into a bank for many years – a result, it claims, of having won the argument in favour of mutuality. It is attracting 3,000 new members a day.The society is predicting a rise in house prices of between 3 and 6 per cent in the coming year, calming fears of a crash in the market.Mr Williamson said he was sorry to see Standard Life, the only other remaining large mutual in the financial services sector, decide to convert to a plc. Of 1.2 million mortgage customers, only 69 are in arrears by three months or more.The society, which is the fourth-biggest lender, is poised to start competing fiercely for new business once again and predicts a honeymoon period for mortgage borrowers.Nationwide, the product of more than 100 mergers since it was formed in 1848, is now the second-biggest player in the savings market. Savings deposits grew by 23 per cent in the year to £8.3bn.Nationwide has total assets of £120bn, making it easily the world’s largest building society.