Jamsetji Gobbles Up British Steel

So the story goes that when Jamsetji wanted to build the Indian steel plant in 1902 (history of Tata Steel), the imperial viceroy of the time, I think it was George Curzon (or may be it was Gilbert Elliot who was the viceroy when the actual factory was constructed in 1908) said, "I will eat all steel the plant can produce." Meaning, it's not going to happen.

Well, about 100 years later, with much water under the bridge, Jamsetji's creation gobbled up the former imperial power's British Steel, now called Corus Steel. Of course, Tata steel paid $12billion (6.2 billion pounds) to create the world's fifth largest steel company, outbidding a Brazilian rival, instead of stealing it like Curzon would have probably done.

Bloomberg's Andy Mukherjee writes Tata Steel may have paid high premium for Corus, but they may actually add value to it and it may be the right thing for Tata Steel growth.