Steel and iron-ore company ArcelorMittal North America has concluded the sale of its remaining 38.2-million shares in rival Cleveland-Cliffs and will return the value crystalised from this sale to shareholders.
The company on Thursday announced a new $750-million share buyback programme of ArcelorMittal common shares, which would start immediately.
ArcelorMittal said that the sale of the remaining shares in Cleveland-Cliffs brought the total cash proceeds from the sale of ArcelorMittal USA to $1.9-billion, all of which had been returned to shareholders through buybacks.
Cleveland-Cliffs last year bought ArcelorMittal USA on a cash-free and debt-free basis, with a combination of 78.2-million shares of Cleveland-Cliffs common stock, nonvoting preferred stock with an aggregate value of $373-million and $505-million in cash.
ArcelorMittal North America continues to hold nonvoting preferred stock redeemable at Cleveland-Cliffs’ option for about 58-million common shares or cash equivalent to the value of such common shares.