US Steel Rises on CNBC Report of American Rivals Mulling Bid

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(Bloomberg) -- United States Steel Corp. shares rose after CNBC reported that Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and Nucor Corp. are considering a takeover bid of the iconic American steelmaker.

Cliffs would purchase all of US Steel for cash and then sell off the Big River Steel subsidiary to Nucor, CNBC reported Monday, citing unidentified sources. The offer would be in the high $30s a share, the report said. Nucor, Cliffs and US Steel didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

US Steel’s stock jumped as much as 9.4% in New York to $37.44. Cliffs rose as much as 4.9% while Nucor climbed 4.5%.

The CNBC report comes 10 days after US President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel Corp.’s $14.1 billion takeover offer of US Steel over concerns about foreign ownership and national security. Biden’s formal decision on Jan. 3 came after the case was referred to him by a US security review panel, effectively killing a high-profile deal that sparked a political firestorm and tensions between the US and Japan.

The Japanese steelmaker offered to buy US Steel for $55 a share.

Nippon Steel and US Steel jointly filed a pair of lawsuits last week in a last-ditch effort to preserve their planned merger. The companies argued in a joint statement that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States failed to consider the deal on national security grounds and that Biden’s order to block it was made for “purely political reasons.”

--With assistance from Yiqin Shen.

(Adds shares from first paragraph. An earlier version corrects spelling of Cliffs in second paragraph.)

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