U.S. Steel to Be Acquired
Date Posted: December 19, 2023
Posted In: News,
From St. Louis Business Journal: United States Steel Corp., which has operations in St. Louis’ Metro East, will be acquired by Nippon Steel in a deal worth $14.9 billion, U.S. Steel announced Monday morning.
It said the deal would “retain its iconic name, brand and headquarters in Pittsburgh.”
U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) said Tokyo-based Nippon Steel will pay $55 a share, which represents $14.1 billion and up to $14.9 billion with the assumption of debt. That’s up 40% from the $39.33 a share it closed on Friday.
The deal is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2024.
The announcement caps a monthlong process that began with unsolicited bids for U.S. Steel and included offerings from rival Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. as well as at least two other steelmakers. Beyond the announcement about the name and headquarters, it wasn’t clear immediately how it would impact the Pittsburgh region, where U.S. Steel has a major presence with its headquarters downtown, its massive Mon Valley Works complex and a research and development facility in Munhall. There are thousands of employees at U.S. Steel in the Pittsburgh region.
In the St. Louis area, it’s also unclear how the deal will impact U.S. Steel’s operations. The company announced in August that it would be idling steelmaking at its Granite City Works plant indefinitely. U.S. Steel at that time said it issued 1,000 employees a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice that they might be laid off and said they anticipated about 60% of those workers would likely lose their jobs. The move came two months after U.S. Steel temporarily idled furnace B, laying off hundreds of workers in a move it called “risk mitigation” in response to the now-resolved United Auto Workers strike.