An Usiminas shareholder has filed a legal claim alleging that contracts with controlling shareholder Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, which inexplicably rose ten-fold in the past five years, damaged the ailing Brazilian steelmaker's finances, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The claim, filed on Monday, questioned the nature of 19 billion reais ($5.4 billion) of so-called related-party contracts between Usinas Siderúrgicas de Minas Gerais SA and subsidiaries of Nippon Steel, said the sources, who spoke under condition of anonymity.
They said the legal action was attached to a lawsuit already filed by minority shareholder Cia Siderúrgica Nacional SA, which wants courts to block a capital injection plan approved by the board of Usiminas last week.
According to the sources, the latest claim by CSN alleged that Usiminas' outdated plants failed to benefit from expensive contracts for technology and equipment transfer from Nippon Steel.
The lawsuit alleges that Techint Group, the other of Usiminas' two controlling shareholders, allowed Nippon Steel to ramp up the contracts in a quid pro quo for keeping control over the day-to-day management of the steelmaker, the sources said.
Nippon Steel declined to comment, saying only that the company "always brought about technological innovation at Usiminas." Techint had no immediate comment.
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