Also, the Tetley Tea, a subsidiary of Tata Tea, announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire 33 percent stake in South Africa's third largest tea company Joekels Tea Packers for an undisclosed amount.

"We are looking at Corus given recent industry consolidation. Tata Steel is reviewing a number of global opportunities," a Tata Steel spokesperson said in a statement reacting to newspaper reports that it was considering a 10.4 billion dollar bid for Corus, the world's seventh largest steel maker with 18 billion dollars in yearly sales.

He said although Corus fits into Tata Steel's strategy, there was no certainty that any approach would be made to Corus which produces 18 million tons of steel a year. Tata Steel manufactured more than five million tons of steel in the year up to March this year and aims to reach 7.5 million tons by 2008.

As part of its plan to become the low-cost and efficient supplier of steel to value added steel plants in major markets, Tata Steel has already bought two foreign companiesThailand's Millennium Steel and Singapore's NatSteel Limited. The move to buy Corus is also being viewed as part of this strategy.

On the tea front, the Tetley Group Chief Executive Officer Ken Pringle said the acquisition of Joekels "is yet another development in our plan to grow the Tata Group's tea business around the world".

The Tetley Group, a British tea company which the Tatas acquired in the year 2000 for 407 million dollars, is the world's second largest tea bag company having a sizable presence in the UK, Canada, the US, Poland, France and Australia.

Under the agreement between Tata-controlled Tetley Tea and Joekels, the South African company will sell Tetley branded productions in not only South Africa but also in neighbouring African countries of Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho. Set up in 1994, Joekels has an annual turnover of five million dollars.