TOKYO – Nippon Steel closed its US$14.1 billion (S$18.1 billion) acquisition of United States Steel bringing an end to a bruising takeover battle that was embroiled in American politics for months until finally gaining support from US President Donald Trump.

The transaction closes exactly 18 months after the two steelmakers first announced their surprising tie-up, a timeline veteran traders called one of the most unique they’ve ever witnessed. The controversial deal weathered two presidential administrations, union opposition, an expensive lobbying campaign and two US security panel reviews.

“This has been an unprecedented situation that got completely politicised – the fact that the union was so vocal, but presidential candidates too? That’s never happened before,” said Wolfe Research analyst Timna Tanners, who has covered the industry for two decades. “Steel was the discussion at people’s kitchen tables, which probably hasn’t happened for a while, but in the end, it happened exactly how it should have.”

Nippon Steel’s US$55-a-share acquisition creates the world’s second-largest steelmaker and turns the combined entity into a formidable competitor within the American steel industry. The companies struck a conditional deal with the Trump administration on June 13 that saw the Japanese steelmaker agree to invest an additional US$11 billion in the Pittsburgh-based producer, giving them the green light to close a transaction first announced in mid-December 2023.

The biggest winners may have been US Steel investors who held onto their stock through the roller-coaster ride that saw shares sink as low as US$26.92 at one point – less than half Nippon Steel’s offer. One top investor was Florida-based hedge fund Pentwater Capital Management, which held more than US$1 billion in stock.

“I’m wearing my US Steel shirt today,” Pentwater Capital’s founder, Mr Matthew Halbower, said in a June 18 interview. “In the end, sanity prevailed.”

Nippon Steel in the end offered enough concessions to Mr Trump that made it nearly impossible for his administration not to approve the combination. Most eye-opening were promises by the steelmakers to give the US president direct say in a number of decision-making scenarios for the ...