Evraz Highveld: Stock shoots up on warning of sale

Evraz Highveld Steel & Vanadium rose the most in more than two months on Friday after it said it was in discussions with new bidders to sell an 85 percent stake in the South African unit of Russia’s largest steel maker. The stock rose 5.56 percent, the most since December 13, to close at R16.89. Evraz Highveld said in November last year that its $320 million (R3.5 billion) sale of Evraz’s controlling stake to Nemascore, a group of black investors, would be concluded by the end of last year. Hot-steel production at the company fell 8 percent in the three months to December, it said last month. “The independent board of the company has agreed to allow these potential bidders to conduct a due diligence,” Evraz Highveld said. The price Nemascore had agreed to pay “always looked high”, BCS Financial equity research head Kirill Chuyko said on Friday. “It’s not a big surprise that it may not be closed.” Evraz Highveld has dropped 0.6 percent this year. – Bloomberg