On Thursday (March 14th), U.S. President Joe Biden publicly voiced opposition to Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel Corporation, stating that U.S. Steel must remain a company owned and operated within the United States.
U.S. Steel’s stock fell more than 6% on Tuesday, following a nearly 13% drop the previous trading day, as media reports revealed Biden’s potential intervention in the merger deal.
In December last year, Nippon Steel announced its intention to acquire U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion. If successful, the deal would make it the world’s second-largest steel producer. Nippon Steel’s offer was 40% higher than U.S. Steel’s stock price at the time of the announcement, betting that the Inflation Reduction Act would spur a revival in U.S. manufacturing.
However, the transaction faced significant resistance in the U.S., with bipartisan members of Congress opposing the deal due to national security concerns.
Biden stated on Thursday, “We need to preserve a strong U.S. Steel company driven by American steelworkers. I’ve told our steelworkers that I support them, and I mean it.”
He continued, “For over a century, U.S. Steel has been an iconic enterprise in the American steel industry. It is vital for America to continue owning and operating it domestically.”
According to media reports, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is reviewing the acquisition. This agency is responsible for examining foreign investments in U.S. companies. CFIUS may recommend blocking the transaction on national security grounds.
Regulatory filings from January show that Nippon Steel has pledged to take all necessary actions to complete the acquisition, including paying a breakup fee of $565 million to U.S. Steel if the deal fails.
Following Biden’s statement, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned against politicizing the acquisition of U.S. Steel. If CFIUS’s review does not identify national security issues, the transaction should proceed.
John Murphy, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Senior Vice President for International Affairs, stated, “Japanese investments in the U.S. support nearly a million jobs. Officials must be careful not to send a chilling signal to international companies that their job-creating investments in the U.S. could be at risk due to politics.”
[Source – 上海有色网] 交易要黄？拜登发声反对日本制铁收购美国钢铁 https://news.smm.cn/news/102663107
