Nippon Steel Confident It Can Finalize Acquisition This Year
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Nippon Steel Corp. said it still expects its $14.1 billion acquisition of United States Steel Corp. to complete by the end of the year.
Despite opposition from unions and the outgoing Biden administration, the Japanese company says the deal will be beneficial to the U.S. economy and American jobs, and aligned with policies to compete with the world’s biggest steel mills in China. But Donald Trump’s decisive victory in this week’s presidential election has made the acquisition arguably even more fraught.
“Now that the election is over, we believe that there can be constructive discussions about this deal,” Vice Chairman Takahiro Mori said at a briefing in Tokyo on Nov. 7, after Japan’s largest steelmaker reported a 30% drop in second-quarter net income and cut its forecast for the year.
Mori said he hopes to visit the U.S. this month and meet with union leaders.
President-elect Trump is likely to pursue a more isolationist agenda when he takes office in January, and has said repeatedly he would block the deal. The chief of the United Steelworkers union has also been a vocal opponent, arguing there’s no guarantee that Nippon Steel will keep union jobs in the future.
Regulators at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States have granted Nippon Steel permission to refile its bid, giving it more time to close the deal. The Japanese company has already made concessions, including a pledge to invest $1.3 billion at operations owned by U.S. Steel, as well as the sale of its stake in an Alabama mill to sidestep possible antitrust issues.
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