BlueScope Steel Open to Better Offers After Spurning $8.8 Billion Takeover Bid
The company will flesh out its plans for future shareholder returns, among other priorities, when it reports its half-year earnings later this month
BlueScope Steel BSL -1.65%decrease; red down pointing triangle isn’t in talks with suitors Steel Dynamics STLD -1.32%decrease; red down pointing triangle and SGH but would be open to a takeover proposal that meets its expectations, the company’s new chief executive officer said in an interview.
Tania Archibald, who on Sunday succeeded former CEO Mark Vassella, also flagged a review of BlueScope’s dividend policy as she highlighted higher shareholder returns among her priorities for the year ahead.
BlueScope last month rebuffed a roughly US$8.8 billion bid from Steel Dynamics and SGH, saying it was an attempt to buy the Australian steelmaker cheaply.
Archibald on Monday said BlueScope hasn’t engaged with the pair about the proposal—the fourth involving Steel Dynamics since late 2024.
“There’s been no change,” she said. But “we remain open to all proposals that allow us to realize value for the business.”
She declined to comment on whether BlueScope is in talks with other companies on an alternative deal.
The CEO of Steel Dynamics, Mark Millett, last week expressed disappointment at BlueScope’s reaction to the joint takeover bid in a call with analysts. BlueScope hadn’t provided shareholders with an alternative strategy that could provide the same certainty of a similar return to its offer with SGH, he said.
Archibald Monday outlined a few of her priorities to deliver value for shareholders, including plans for more cost savings and to develop surplus land near some of the steelmaker’s operations.
“We’ve got our views around fundamental value, and we’re very firmly focused on looking at all options as to how we realize that value,” she said.
BlueScope’s dividend policy is being reconsidered as part of a periodic review of shareholder returns, said Archibald. She expects substantially higher shareholder returns as the company finishes a 2 billion Australian dollar, equivalent to US$1.39 billion, investment program.
“We’re coming towards the back end of a pretty long major capital investment program and as that program ramps down, it’s really about focusing on ramping up the returns to shareholders,” she said.
BlueScope will flesh out its plans for future shareholder returns, among other priorities, when it reports its half-year earnings later this month, Archibald said. “That’s when we would normally talk more specifically about the mechanisms and the nature of the returns that we’ll be providing.”
Shares in the company were 1.0% lower by early afternoon in Sydney amid a sharp retreat in materials stocks across the region.
Plans to streamline BlueScope’s leadership and functional teams are among Archibald’s priorities to help the steelmaker save money. BlueScope has nearly completed a A$200 million cost and productivity program and will target savings of roughly A$150 million more on an annualized basis, she said.
“I think the majority of it will be people related, but clearly there will be a spend component as well,” she said. Archibald said there is a lot of “back-office stuff that we do that we just feel can be done in a much more efficient way.”
She declined to comment on how many jobs could be cut.
On the plans for BlueScope’s surplus land, Archibald said the steelmaker will be exploring a range of options.
In rejecting the takeover proposal, the steelmaker highlighted a portfolio of land that it estimates could be valued at as much as A$2.8 billion, based on gains from a recent sale. Steel Dynamics’s Millett countered that it will take the company a long time unlock value from the land holdings.
“It could well be that we sell some land,” Archibald said. “There may be other parts of the land that we joint venture. There may be some that we develop. So that’s what we’re working through at the moment.”