Sterlite Industries starts takeover tussle for Asarco

Anil Agarwal-promoted Sterlite Industries has appealed in a “higher court” in the US against the District Court’s order to hand over bankrupt copper miner Asarco back to Grupo Mexico.

Sterlite, the largest copper producer in India, hopes to win a reversal of the ruling by the US District Court in Brownsville, Texas in last November that returned Asarco to former parent Grupo Mexico.

The court had said that Grupo Mexico’s proposal to pay about $2.5 billion to Asarco LLC’s creditors “is both feasible and confirmable”.

After nearly five years of legal proceedings, the court had rejected Sterlite’s offer to take over and reorganise the Tucson-based copper miner. Sterlite is now appealing the decision in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Grupo Mexico and Sterlite each promised to spend more than $2.5 billion to guarantee that Asarco’s creditors are repaid in full. In ruling in favour of Grupo Mexico, the District Court agreed with a lower-court opinion from the bankruptcy judge who oversaw Asarco’s case for five years.