Industry Valuation Expertise
Our M&A database development is informed by extensive hands-on experience in steel company valuations and transaction advisory work. Since 2004, our team has completed over 20 major steel asset valuations across four continents, working with prestigious clients including the European Commission, government privatisation agencies, and international financial institutions.
Led by M&A advisory expert Alan Grimmond, our valuation assignments have covered the full spectrum of steel assets - from integrated flat product plants and mini-mills to specialised facilities including seamless tube mills, direct reduced iron plants, and downstream processing operations. This practical experience in valuing steel companies using DCF analysis, EBITDA multiples, and market comparable approaches provides unique insights into the key value drivers and risk factors that shape M&A transactions in our database.
Our SteelCo Valuation Service continues to support clients in M&A due diligence, asset disposals, and strategic planning. This ongoing advisory work ensures our database methodology remains current with industry best practices and helps us identify the most relevant transaction metrics for comparative analysis. The combination of database research and active transaction involvement provides a comprehensive perspective on steel industry consolidation patterns and valuation trends.
M&A Transaction Experience
Our M&A analysis is informed by our consultants' direct involvement in steel sector transactions, including pre-acquisition restructuring work across six steel plants (ranging from 500 kt to 5 million tonnes / year capacity) in Poland, Czech Republic, and Turkey. These facilities spanned both flat and long product manufacturing, providing comprehensive insight into different steel market segments. Our restructuring work addressed market positioning, technical optimisation, and strategic realignment - the core factors that drive M&A valuations and deal structures in the international steel industry.
Real-Time Market Monitoring
Our M&A database is supported by continuous monitoring of global steel industry developments through our dedicated Steel M&A News Feed. This real-time intelligence gathering ensures we capture emerging transactions as they develop, from initial market rumours through formal announcements to deal completion.
The news feed aggregates M&A-related developments from over 50 international sources, including regulatory filings, industry publications, and corporate communications. This ongoing monitoring allows us to identify potential transactions before formal announcements, track deal progress through regulatory approvals, and capture post-closing integration updates that affect transaction outcomes.
Information Sources
Our steel industry M&A database is compiled exclusively from publicly available sources to ensure comprehensive coverage and accuracy. All information is sourced from public records and announcements, with no proprietary or confidential data included.
Primary data sources include company press releases and investor presentations and industry trade publications.
Database Updates
Our M&A database receives continuous updates as new transactions are announced and existing deals progress through completion. We typically add new entries within a few days of public announcement.
Deal records are enhanced over subsequent weeks as additional information becomes available, including final transaction values, employment numbers, steel production volumes etc.
Quarterly database reviews ensure data accuracy and completeness, with comprehensive annual audits to verify historical information and identify any transactions that may have been initially missed.
Data Quality Standards
We strive to ensure that each transaction is described by at least two independent public sources before inclusion in the database. Deal records undergo fact-checking processes, with particular attention to transaction values.
Coverage Criteria
Our database focuses on transactions exceeding $5 million in value, ensuring coverage of significant deals. We track global transactions across four main categories: steel producer acquisitions, scrap recycling takeovers, steel distribution deals, and corporate mergers.
Private company transactions receive coverage when sufficient public information is available. Details tend to much more limited than for publicly traded companies, and such transactions are excluded from our database. We also exclude routine equipment purchases, short-term supply agreements, and purely financial restructurings that don't represent ownership changes.
Data Fields and Verification
Each M&A record includes standardised data fields: buyer name and country, target company and location, transaction date, transaction value (when publicly disclosed), percentage stake acquired, and deal type classification. Where employment levels or steel production volumes are known, these metric are recorded also.
Financial metrics are reported in US dollars using exchange rates at announcement date. Information sources are recorded for verification purposes. Users can contact our research team to report discrepancies or request additional verification for specific transactions.
Citations & Institutional Recognition
The expertise behind our M&A database is validated through extensive citations from leading institutions worldwide. Our analysis and data are referenced by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and UK Parliament. Our founder's commentary also appears from time to time in the international press.
Historical M&A Commentary
Our M&A expertise has been recognised since the early days of major cross-border steel transactions. In 2006, during the landmark Tata-Corus acquisition - one of the largest steel industry takeovers in history - Domain-b featured our CEO's strategic analysis in "Are Tatas paying too much for Corus?" questioning the deal's valuation rationale. This early recognition of our M&A analytical capabilities, particularly our focus on investment risk assessment, established our credibility in evaluating complex steel sector consolidation deals that continues to inform our database methodology today.
Authority Foundation: View complete academic citations, government references, and media recognition →