Investment firm Ancora has nominated nine candidates to US Steel’s board of directors, pressuring the steelmaker to back out of a $14.9 billion merger deal with Nippon Steel.
Ancora, which owns a 0.18% stake in the company, proposed to replace Burritt with Alan Kestenbaum, former CEO of Canadian steelmaker Stelco that was acquired by Cleveland-Cliffs in a $2.8 billion deal last year.
Cliffs made a formal acquisition proposal for US Steel last year, but the Pittsburgh steelmaker raised concerns about antitrust issues. Former US President Joe Biden later blocked Nippon Steel’s bid on national security grounds and delayed an order for Nippon to abandon its pursuit of US Steel until June. Following this, US Steel and Nippon sued the Biden administration, demanding that a federal appeals court overturn his decision, so they can secure a national security review.
“We are…concerned about the motivations behind these nominations, given Ancora’s and Alan Kestenbaum’s recent dealings with failed bidder Cleveland-Cliffs.”
Statement from US Steel
“We are…concerned about the motivations behind these nominations, given Ancora’s and Alan Kestenbaum’s recent dealings with failed bidder Cleveland-Cliffs,” US Steel said in a statement.
Nippon remains interested in working with the Donald Trump administration to try to seal the takeover, vice chairman Takahiro Mori stated in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.
Source: Mining.com