Image: U.S. Steel February 26, 2021
ERIE, Pa. In January, when the deal closed, U.S. Steel executives positioned the company’s acquisition of Big River Steel as a “best of both” integration a $774 million blending of traditional steelmaking and LEED-certified, Flex Mill manufacturing.
The student members of Penn State Behrend’s CFA Institute Research Challenge Team said they saw it differently.
“It’s too little, too late,” said Joshua Kirkpatrick, a senior from Pittsburgh.
He and his teammates Evan Briant, Michael Fedorek, Simon Nero and Michael Tejchman spent months studying U.S. Steel, a Pittsburgh-based Fortune 250 company. On Feb. 24, at the opening round of the CFA Institute student challenge, they were given 10 minutes to convince a panel of financial analysts that the company is overvalued at $13.60 per share.
December 15, 2020 By David Murray
United States Steel Corporation announced December 8 that it has exercised its call option to acquire the remaining equity of Big River Steel for approximately $774 million from cash on hand. Big River Steel’s barge-served facility is located in Osceola, Ark. It just completed Phase 2 of expansion plans, ahead of schedule and under budget, that will double its capacity to 3.3 million tons a year.
In October 2019, Big River Steel had announced it had agreed to receive $700 million in cash from U.S. Steel in return for a 49.9 percent ownership interest, with an option to acquire the remaining 50.1 percent. It’s that option that U.S. Steel is exercising now.