TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Nippon Steel said on Thursday it had extended the deadline for its $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel Corp, saying it believed the acquisition would protect and grow the U.S. company.
The expected delivery date was revised to the first quarter of 2025 from the previous third or fourth quarter of 2024.
On Monday, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States will submit the decision to approve or block the deal to U.S. President Joe Biden, who has 15 days to make a decision.
Both Biden and his successor, Donald Trump, have expressed opposition to the purchase.
“Nippon Steel hopes that the president will use this time to conduct a fair, fact-based evaluation of the acquisition. We continue to believe that the acquisition will protect and grow U.S. Steel,” Nippon Steel said Thursday.
It added that a review process by the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division was also ongoing, but did not specify when it would end.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
