NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Esmark Inc majority owner
and chief executive James Bouchard said in an interview on
Tuesday that his steel maker, which does not publicly report its
earnings, has cash for its $7.8 billion bid for U.S. Steel Corp
sitting in his bank account.
Esmark unveiled its offer on Monday after Cleveland-Cliffs
Inc, another steel maker, said on Sunday it had made a
$7.3 billion offer for U.S. Steel, which the latter rejected.
Cleveland-Cliffs said it could afford the deal because it would
pay for half of it using its own stock as currency and borrow
from banks to help pay for the other half.
Bouchard said he had $10 billion available and Esmark itself
had no debt. “I got $10 billion in cash in my bank account,”
Bouchard said. He did not provide more details to verify he has
access to the cash.
Bouchard added he was being advised on his offer for U.S.
Steel by an “international bank” he declined to name, which was
also willing to lend to him.
U.S. Steel did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Bouchard, a former U.S. Steel executive, said Esmark was
“the third largest steelmaker in the country”, without
elaborating with any figures. In 2008, he sold another company
of his with the same name to Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal
for $1.3 billion. He subsequently bought back the Esmark name,
trademark and intellectual property to create his latest steel
maker, which he says generates over $500 million in annual
revenue.
(Reporting by David Carnevali in New York; Editing by Josie
Kao)
