JANA asks Alcoa to call off Alcan bid, ponder sale

NEW YORK  - Activist hedge fund JANA Partners LLC asked Alcoa Inc.'s board on Tuesday to drop efforts to buy Canadian peer Alcan Inc. and instead consider other alternatives -- including the sale of Alcoa.

Given Alcoa's long history of failing to generate shareholder value through acquisition, we believe that its greatest value can be realized through a sale or break-up of the company," JANA managing partner Barry Rosenstein said in a letter to Alcoa Chairman and Chief Executive Alain Belda.

On Tuesday, aluminum producer Alcoa launched a hostile bid for Alcan worth nearly $27 billion after talks between the two aluminum producers failed to lead to a deal.

Rosenstein said he believes the move was designed to ward off potential Alcoa suitors and was timed to avoid a shareholders' vote.

An Alcoa spokesman said in an e-mail that the board "carefully reviewed a complete range of strategic options and concluded that the transaction we proposed yesterday is in the best interests of Alcoa and its shareholders."

He said Alcoa has a track record of delivering on targeted synergies and effectively integrating acquisitions.

Belda said in a conference call on Monday that a link with Alcan would better position Alcoa to compete with fast-growing competitors, such as Russia's RUSAL and Aluminum Corp. of China, or Chalco

Montreal-based Alcan, which was split off from Alcoa in the 1920's because of antitrust concerns, said it plans to consider the proposal and advised shareholders to wait until it has fully reviewed the offer.

An Alcoa-Alcan combination would control about 25 percent of the alumina raw material and primary aluminum markets and put its production capacity well above that of rival RUSAL.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.