Nippon Steel, U.S. Steel make last-ditch effort to win US nod, source says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A top Nippon Steel executive plans to meet with senior U.S. officials on Wednesday to try and salvage the firm’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel, a person familiar with the matter said.

The meeting, which will feature Takahiro Mori, a key negotiator on the deal, is also expected to include Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves among other officials, the person said, declining to be named because he was not authorized to speak about the matter.

The Treasury Department, which leads the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., and Nippon Steel declined to comment. The Commerce Department, the White House, and U.S. Steel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A number of U.S. business groups also sounded the alarm on Wednesday that the Biden administration’s national security review of Nippon Steel’s planned $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel is being unduly influenced by political pressure.

CFIUS is a powerful committee that reviews foreign investments for national security risks. It sent a letter in late August warning the companies their proposed tie-up would threaten U.S. national security by weakening the U.S. steel supply chain, as first reported by Reuters, appearing to doom the proposed deal.

The companies countered in a 100-page letter also obtained by Reuters that the deal would in fact strengthen U.S. steel output, by allowing a much needed cash injection from a company in an allied nation into a struggling American company in a critical industry.

The meeting also comes amid bipartisan opposition to the deal by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. They are vying to win the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, where U.S. Steel is headquartered.

The meeting was first reported by the Financial Times.