US Steel gets a new owner
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2023
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Activist investor Cevian Capital has taken a €1.2bn stake in UBS, and Nippon Steel has agreed to buy US Steel in a $14.9bn deal. Plus, the FT’s Josh Gabert-Doyon takes us to the English town of Widnes and discusses what the destruction of fossil fuel infrastructure means for local citizens.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Activist Cevian places €1.2bn bet on UBS
Nippon Steel agrees to buy US Steel for $14.9bn
The Fiddler’s Ferry blast that will reshape a town’s identity
The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson, Kasia Broussalian and Marc Filippino. Additional help by Sam Giovinco, Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Our engineer is Monica Lopez. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.0 | Learn more at equinore. |
| 0:10.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Tuesday, December 19th, and this is your |
| 0:17.1 | FT news briefing. An activist investor has upped its stake in UBS and Nippon Steel is buying an American steel legend. |
| 0:27.6 | Plus towns are trying to figure out what to do with outdated coal plants. One answer, blow them up. |
| 0:34.0 | I'm Mark Filipino and here's the news you need to start your day. Sevy and Capital has taken a 1.2 billion euro stake in UBS. |
| 1:01.1 | The activist investor thinks that the Swiss Bank can double its valuation over the next three to five years. |
| 1:07.0 | It's a pretty big bet for Sevium. It's now a top 10 investor in UBS. |
| 1:11.0 | And Sevian apparently had its eye on UBS for a while. |
| 1:15.0 | Sources said it's been tracking the bank for 15 years. |
| 1:19.0 | It even came close to taking an activist position in Credit Swiss, but backed off. |
| 1:25.0 | Probably a good call. |
| 1:26.8 | Credit Swiss collapsed earlier this year, and then UBS took it over. Japan's Nippon Steel has agreed to buy the American company U.S. Steel and a deal worth |
| 1:42.4 | close to 1515 billion. If it's approved by U.S. regulators, |
| 1:47.0 | it would be the Japanese group's largest ever acquisition. |
| 1:51.0 | Our Asia Business Editor Leo Lewis joins me to discuss what's in it for both sides. |
| 1:55.0 | Hi Leo. |
| 1:56.0 | Hello Mark. |
| 1:57.0 | All right, so how are people feeling about this deal in Japan? |
| 2:00.0 | Well, it comes as part of a sort of wave of deals that have been flagged by bankers. |
| 2:05.6 | Japan is a country where the population is shrinking and in the longer term the economy |
| 2:11.4 | will come under a lot of pressure and Japanese companies |
... |
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