Chief Executive Officer & Director, UNITED STATES STEEL CORP
I know I could return U.S. Steel to greatness, says Ancora-backed CEO candidate Alan Kestenbaum
Alan Kestenbaum, Ancora's CEO and Director Candidate for U.S. Steel, joins 'Closing Bell Overtime' to talk the possibility of taking ...
About Alan Kestenbaum
Alan Kestenbaum, the Ancora-backed nominee for CEO of United States Steel, stated in a February 2025 interview that the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel is "dead," citing President Biden's decision to block it and opposition from the Trump administration. He argued that a lawsuit challenging the president's authority lacks precedent and predicted the company would lose the case. Kestenbaum also criticized U.S. Steel CEO Dave Burd's suggestion that certain plants would be shut down, calling it an "irresponsible statement" and asserting that the mines associated with those plants are among the company's most valuable assets. Kestenbaum outlined a plan to turn U.S. Steel around as a standalone public company, drawing on his experience as former CEO of Stelco. He said he bought Stelco from U.S. Steel for $53 million, took it public four months later at a $1.7 billion valuation, returned $2 billion to shareholders, invested $1 billion in capital expenditures, and made it the lowest-cost steel producer in North America. He expressed confidence that similar techniques could make U.S. Steel's Mon Valley and Gary plants even more profitable. Kestenbaum stated he has no connection to Cleveland-Cliffs, describing himself as an independent businessman who recently sold his business to the company.
Transcript (6 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
And Cora's and Alan Kestenbaum's recent dealings with failed bidder Cleveland-Cliffs. Well, joining me exclusively is Alan Kestenbaum, former Stelco CEO and chairman and Ankara's nominee to be the new head of U.S. Steel. It's great to have you here on set. Welcome. Thank you.
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Alan Kestenbaum0:16
So much for having me.
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Interviewer0:17
So there's a lot to dig into, but the first thing I want to start with is the fact that what's being put forward by Ankara and what you're proposing to do as the nominee, their nominee for CEO, is to turn U.S. Steel around and to do so as a publicly traded, standalone company that does not need to be acquired by somebody else. How do you do that? Especially when everybody, including U.S. Steel, is saying there needs to be some sort of acquisition because there needs to be some sort of infusion of capital to update the plants.
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Alan Kestenbaum0:45
Yeah. Well, let me start by saying the Nippon deal is dead. It's been killed. President Biden killed it. The folks in the Trump administration have spoken out against it for a very, very long time. So the notion that the Nippon deal is an option is gone. So now what's left is you have a company run by a CEO who has done a very, very poor job in running the company. And it kind of breaks my heart because I grew up in the steel industry. And I actually know that I could take this company and actually restore it to its greatness. And I came up with this acronym to make U.S. Steel great again. And why I'm the person to do it and how I'm going to do it. It's very simple. I bought Stelco from U.S. Steel. It was in the exact same condition. Very, very low morale, very poor earnings, high cost of production. And I bought that company in 2017 from them. At the time, it was just losing money. They lost $1.4 billion in that investment. I bought it for $53 million from them. Four months later, I took it public for a valuation of 1.7 billion. I then returned to shareholders $2 billion. I put a billion into CapEx, and I made it the lowest cost steel producer in North America. And so when you ask me about what I can do with these plants, Dave Burd has said he's going to shut these plants down. Well, first of all, he's just shooting from the hip. Because if you shut those plants down, you also need to shut the mines down. And the mines are one of the most valuable assets that the company has. So it's just a sort of, you know, irresponsible statement that he made. And my plan would be to do exactly what I did at Stelco and to rebuild those plants, particularly the ones he talked about. Mon Valley and Gary have the opportunity to be even lower cost than Stelco. So I can take those plants, make them very, very profitable, turn them around from where they are today with some very similar techniques as I did at Stelco.
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Interviewer2:51
You mentioned the Nippon deal is dead. It's not actually dead. I mean, it was hung at CFIUS. And then President Biden at the time decided was the deciding vote and basically blocked the deal. But CFIUS has since extended the implementation of that block by six months. So this can go through a court process. So we still need to, if they decide to, they still need to proceed through that channel. We've heard from U.S. Steel. We just read it at the beginning of this. And there have even been some analysts that have raised this, and that is questions about dealings with Cleveland-Cliffs and whether you're, quote unquote, doing the bidding, essentially, of Cleveland-Cliffs in this process, which we know has put offers forward and is still very interested in buying U.S. Steel. Your response?
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Alan Kestenbaum3:35
Yes. Well, first of all, let me respond to the first point. The deal actually is dead. The court process that is being pursued, there is no precedent of any court process prevailing in such a situation. So the fact that they decided to start a lawsuit does not make the deal not dead. The deal is dead. There is no basis for the lawsuit to say that the president didn't have the authority when he clearly did have the authority is not really a lawsuit. So I expect they're going to lose the lawsuit. In terms of Cleveland-Cliffs, I have nothing to do with Cleveland-Cliffs. I'm an independent businessman. I just sold my business to Cleveland-Cliffs. And I love the steel industry. And I have a tremendous track record, as I mentioned before, in turning around steel companies, not just Stelco. Before that was Global Specialty Metals, I turned around, which was also left for dead. And so to me, looking at the storied history of this company and thinking about the employees I encountered at Stelco and at Globe, who were depressed and thinking they're going to be out of jobs. And then you read their own CEO, their own boss, telling them they're going to be out of jobs, when actually you can go fix the company and make it super profitable. That's what drives me. I have nothing to do with Cliffs. This is what I want to do and this is what I'm going to do.