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Venezuela sets June 30 deadline for Sidor takeover
Reuters
May 13, 2008

CARACAS, May 12 (Reuters) - Argentina's Ternium (TX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) must completely hand over steelmaker Sidor to Venezuela by June 30, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday as he nationalizes Venezuela's largest steelmaker.

"(Sidor) has to become a socialist company, and we have to do that ourselves, the government and the workers together," Chavez said on Monday in a televised address from Sidor.

Last month, he announced takeovers in the steel and cement industries, extending a nationalization drive begun by the leftist leader last year as a part of a campaign to create a socialist society.

On Monday, Chavez signed a law nationalizing Sidor and appointed Rodolfo Sanz, minister of Basic Industries and Mining, as the company's president.

Venezuela and Ternium are still in talks to determine how much the state will pay for the company's 60 percent stake in Sidor and conditions under which Ternium could stay on as a minority partner.

The government and Sidor workers on Monday also signed a collective bargaining agreement following months of contract disputes with the previous management that had sparked repeated strikes and led Chavez to order the Sidor takeover. (Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Toni Reinhold)