K M Birla eyes US' Aleris, but he might have to climb the Trump wall first

Kumar Mangalam Birla, who leads the Aditya Birla Group, noted that President Trump is unpredictable. 'We don't know how he thinks,' he said

Last year, the Trump administration blocked a Chinese company from buying an Ohio-based aluminum maker, Aleris, citing concerns about national security.

Will President Trump and his advisers feel differently about an Indian company purchasing Aleris instead?

On Thursday, one of India’s biggest industrial conglomerates, the Aditya Birla Group, announced that its aluminum and copper subsidiary had struck a deal to buy Aleris for $2.6 billion, including the assumption of existing debt.

The transaction would make the Birla subsidiary, called Hindalco, the second-largest aluminum producer in the world by volume, after China Hongqiao Group.

Under federal rules, the deal requires approval