It's six days out from Arrium Australia binding bids and the big boys (and girls) are back in town.
After six months diligence and hundreds of meetings with Arrium management, government, unions, customers and the like, Arrium's auction hammer will fall on February 15.
In preparation for final bids, it is understood heavyweight executives from the respective camps are back in Australia this week, wanting one final round of site visits and other top level talks before putting a binding number forward.
Leading the charge is global commodities and steel investor Liberty House, in conjunction with related party SIMEC, who are said to have re-engaged "in a big way" in recent days.
Street Talk can reveal Liberty and SIMEC are being shown around by a team of Macquarie Capital bankers headed out of its Sydney office.
Liberty House/SIMEC can expect to come up against Brookfield, advised by law firm Ashurst; Korea's Posco Capital which wants to implement its FINEX Technology along with a private equity partner; and a Chinese bidder.
ASX-listed BlueScope, backed by joint venture partner Nippon Steel, also remains in and around the process although will not necessarily be there for Arrium in full come next week, sources said.
Whatever the case, you would have to think BlueScope could pretty easily call on equity markets should it wish to fund a bid, with the stock having almost tripled in the past 12 months to be trading at north of 18-times forecast profit.
Up for grabs is Arrium Australia's combined steel works, port and mining operations at Whyalla, together with its manufacturing, distribution and recycling business.
Morgan Stanley is running the sale on behalf of Arrium administrator KordaMentha.
KordaMentha has told Arrium's lenders that they should have a completed deal by the end of March. Only then will they know how much of the $4 billion-odd debt will be recouped. [Arrium's Moly-Cop was sold last year for $1.6 billion].
