The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved an extension of the deadline for Nippon Steel to abandon its US$14.1 billion takeover of United States Steel Corp, according to a statement by US Steel.
The deadline will be extended to Jun 18 from Feb 2 originally, following President Joe Biden’s order to halt the deal earlier this month. A Nippon Steel spokesperson confirmed the extension to Bloomberg News. The new deadline is also the date the two companies had set for completing the merger.
The decision comes after the two companies filed a petition with the federal appeals court in Washington, arguing that CFIUS failed to consider the deal on national security grounds, and that Biden’s order to block it was made for “purely political reasons”.
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is making final arrangements to visit the US in the first half of February to meet Donald Trump, who by then will have been inaugurated as US president, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Sunday (Jan 12) without identifying the source of its information. The report said Ishiba may discuss the Nippon Steel bid with the new president.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party in Japan earlier issued a resolution calling on the reversal of the decision and a specific explanation of the security concerns behind the US decision. BLOOMBERG
Share with us your feedback on BT’s products and services
