BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- United States Steel Corporation and Toronto, Canada-based Stelco Inc. announced they have agreed US Steel will purchase Stelco for 36.60 U.S. dollars in cash per share.

    US Steel said it will buy all of the outstanding shares for an aggregate value of approximately 1.1 billion dollars, based on approximately 30 million dollars of fully diluted shares.

    Shareholders owning more than 76 percent of Stelco's outstanding shares have agreed to support the transaction.

    As of June 30, 2007, Stelco had approximately 760 million dollars of net debt on its balance sheet as of June 30. US Steel said it intends to pay for the acquisition and retire the majority of Stelco's existing debt through a combination of cash on hand, utilization of existing liquidity facilities and proceeds under two new fully committed senior credit facilities totaling 900 million dollars.

    US Steel expects the acquisition of Stelco will result in annualized pre-tax synergies of more than 100 million dollars by the end of 2008, and that the transaction will be accretive to earnings per share in 2008, excluding synergies and the impact of purchase accounting adjustments.

    (Agencies)