Caemi

Caemi started MBR in a partnership with M. A. Hanna Company in 1965.^[3] MBR since 1971 had been the second biggest iron ore producer in Brazil,^[4] mining in 2005 over 50 million tonnes of iron ore^[5] or around 25% of Brazilian production.^[6]

MBR until Vale acquired 100% of Caemi's capital in 2006 was owned by two companies: Caemi and EBM (Empreendimentos Brasileiros de Mineração S.A.). Caemi had a 49% stake at MBR while EBM owned the other 51% of the company. The problem is that Caemi also owned 70.1% of EBM, this fact brings Caemi's total stake at MBR to 84.75%. Caemi's 84.75% participation at MBR is recognized at the company's 2005 Annual Report, which was Caemi's last.^[7]

EBM, besides Caemi had two other investors:

• Vale owned 9.9% of EBM since 2001, participation which was purchased from Bethlehem Steel^[8]
• Japanese investors owned the remaining 20% of EBM^[9] and in this group were included the following companies: Mitsui,^[10] Nisshin Steel, Nippon Steel, Mitsubishi Corporation, JFE Steel, Itochu, Sumitomo Group, Marubeni and Kobe Steel.^[9][11]

After Vale bought 100% of Caemi, Vale's stake at MBR reached 89.8%, that's because Vale became the owner of Caemi's 84.75% stake at MBR and Vale already indirectly owned 5.05% of MBR through its 9.9% stake at EBM.^[9]

This meant that Vale had only to acquire the remaining 20% of EBM at the hands of the Japanese investors in order to become owner of 100% of MBR. This objective was achieved in May 2007 when Vale bought for $231 million 6.25% of EBM from the Japanese investors and simultaneously leased the 13.75% left from the Japanese group in exchange for a down payment of $60.5 million and annual fee of $48.1 million for the next 30 years.^[9][11] Vale now owns 100% of MBR.

The mining company Vale bought between 2001 and 2006 100% of Caemi's capital for a total cost of $3.2 billion.

Back in 2001 Vale bought for $278.7 million 16.82% of Caemi's capital^[12] then in 2003 Vale purchased Mitsui's participation on Caemi for $426.4 million,^[13] raising Vale's participation to 60.2% of Caemi's total capital.

Finally on 31 March 2006 Vale purchased the remaining 39.8% of Caemi's capital in a stock swap deal worth $2.5 billion.^[14] In May the company's shares stopped being negotiated at Bovespa^[1] and then in December Caemi was merged into Vale and ceased to exist.^[14]