IBN-CNN

New Delhi, Jun 25: In a ground-breaking deal, world’s two largest steel producers on Sunday got wedded to form a new conglomerate called Arcelor-Mittal at the culmination of a prolonged takeover bid by Mittal Steel, world's largest steelmaker which is owned by Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.

According to the deal, Lakshmi Mittal will be the co-chairman of the new firm with Joseph Kinsch, the Arcelor chairman, and a majority of the new board members will be from Arcelor.

Early reports said Mittal Steel offered 43 euros per Arcelor share for the deal.

The decision came at the crunch time of talks at Arcelor, where the board was also weighing a merger proposal with Russia’s Severstal alongside the takeover bid from Mittal Steel.

While the proposal for a deal with Severstal was popular with the management, many shareholders opposed the move.

Arcelor had earlier spurned Mittal's unwelcome advances for the past five months, and earlier this month formally rejected Netherlands-based Mittal's $32.3 billion hostile bid.

But later Mittal is said to have tabled a substantially higher offer, which prompted Arcelor to succumb finally to its advances.

Mittal Steel is already the world's biggest steelmaker. The deal with Arcelor has now gave birth to a group with an output three times larger than its nearest rival.