The directors of the Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus have decided to accept Tata Steel’s £4.1 billion ($7.7 billion) takeover offer, industry sources said on Friday.A formal announcement that the Corus board will recommend shareholders to accept Tata’s bid is expected to be made later on Friday. Corus did not officially confirm this as the final details were still being agreed.

Annanya Sarin, a spokeswoman for Corus, did not confirm or deny that the board had reached a decision on Tata’s takeover offer, but said that any decision would have been announced to regulators.

The Corus board’s reported agreement to Tata’s bid does not necessarily mean that the takeover will go through. It will need to be accepted by shareholders and industry sources were expecting counter-bids from the Russian Severstaal and the Brazilian steel maker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN).

A merger of Corus with Tata Steel will create the sixth largest steel producer in the world and would amount to the biggest takeover of a foreign firm by an Indian company.

Corus is currently ranked the ninth largest steel producer in the world while Tata is ranked 56th. Corus has 24,000 employees in Britain and 16,000 in Holland.