CEO of Vale says that MRS evaluates buying MMX port

MRS Logística, company with participation of Vale, is interested in buying the Porto do Sudeste, which belongs to Eike Batista’s mining company MMX, said on this Wednesday the CEO of Vale, Murilo Ferreira.

A MRS is our subsidiary, where we have minority. It has done through its own entity, its own shareholders, demonstrated interest in Porto do Sudeste, Ferreira said in an interview to reporters after meeting with President Dilma Rousseff, adding that MRS has no interest in acquiring the mining company MMX.

Vale has direct participation of just over 10 percent in the logistics company that operates the Southeast rail network, but MBR, controlled by Vale, has the largest share of the capital of MRS, with 32.9 percent, according with information from the Web site of MRS Logística.

CSN, which owns 27.3 percent of the shares of MRS, Usiminas and Gerdau form, along with Vale and MBR, the group of shareholders which controls MRS.

Despite the difference between shareholdings, MRS’s governance model is shared, with balanced votes on its Board of Directors, according to information from the press office of the company, which did not comment on interest in the Porto do Sudeste.

Sources told Reuters on Tuesday that CSN, Usiminas and Gerdau want assets of MMX, without detailing however, whether the purchase could be made jointly through MRS.

Ferreira said that Vale has no interest in buying MMX.

I hope it is the last time I say this: Vale is not negotiating MMX. Period, Ferreira said.

The main attraction of Eike Batista’s mining company is the port.

Amid financial difficulties of the EBX group, MMX said in June it was evaluating opportunities that include the sale of shares held by the controlling shareholder Eike, as well as its assets.

However, a source accompanying the EBX group recently said that the controller shareholder Eike Batista prefers to sell the MMX’s port and mine together, because the reserves of iron ore lose value without the logistics required to transport them.

Earlier, in São Paulo, the financial vice president of Usiminas, Ronald Seckelmann, said he had no knowledge of a possible offer from MRS for MMX.