ArcelorMittal turns deaf ear to new debt cut chorus
Fp Staff • . BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Having danced to the credit rating agencies' tune to no avail, ArcelorMittal ( ISPA.AS ), the world's largest steelmaker, looks likely to ignore the chorus for more debt cuts, reconciled to its "junk" status for now. It should already have done enough to hit a mid-year net debt target of $17 billion, down from $22 billion at end-December; less than two weeks into 2013, it has raised $4 billion issuing stock and convertibles, $1.1 billion selling a Canadian mining stake, and has half a billion dollars coming from the sale of a manganese venture in South Africa. That appears to meet the $5 billion debt reduction Moody's said in August was needed by early 2013 to keep its investment grade rating
