Exclusive-Rival CEO spread doubt about Nippon Steel deal prospects to Wall Street, documents allege

Even as Nippon Steel faced skepticism of its doomed $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel from the Biden administration, it was also contending with headwinds from an unlikely source: the CEO of a rival bidder for the firm who repeatedly cast doubt on the deal's prospects to investors. Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs, which made a failed $7 billion bid for U.S. Steel in August 2023, participated in at least nine calls assuring investors that President Joe Biden would scuttle the Nippon Steel merger months before he did so on Friday, according to summaries of investor calls included in a Dec. 17 letter from lawyers for Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) and confirmed to Reuters by two participants in the calls.