Sydney, Jan 10, 2026, 17:33 AEDT — Market closed.
BlueScope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) ended Friday at A$30.00, up 2.0%, after its biggest shareholder AustralianSuper backed the company’s rejection of a A$30-a-share takeover approach. The fund said the offer undervalued the steelmaker, tightening the pressure on suitors SGH Ltd and U.S.-based Steel Dynamics. (Reuters)
An ASX notice showed AustralianSuper lifted its voting power to 13.52% from 12.50% after buying shares earlier in the week. In a scheme of arrangement — a court-supervised takeover that needs shareholder approval — that stake can make or break a deal. (Company Announcements)
SGH and Steel Dynamics have pitched a non-binding indicative offer, a preliminary proposal that can be dropped, to buy BlueScope via a scheme and then split the group, with Steel Dynamics taking the North American operations including North Star while SGH keeps the “Australia + Rest of World” business. The A$30 cash price would be reduced by any cash dividends paid after mid-December, and the consortium wants exclusive due diligence and debt funding lined up. BlueScope’s board rejected it, saying the conditions and time to close would drag the effective value below A$30 and “very significantly” undervalued the company.
Chair Jane McAloon told shareholders the offer landed “at a time of lower steel spreads in Asia”, arguing that a normalisation in spreads and foreign exchange rates could add A$400 million to A$900 million a year in EBIT — earnings before interest and tax, a measure of operating profit. Steel spreads are the gap between steel prices and key inputs, and the company said they have been soft lately. McAloon also pointed to cost cuts and a 1,200-hectare land bank, and said the board had already knocked back approaches in the past year at prices ranging from A$27.50 to A$33 a share. (BlueScope)
The stock has spent the week trading like a deal name: it slipped to A$29.40 on Thursday after the board’s rejection, then pushed back to the offer line into the Friday close. The day’s range ran from A$28.75 to A$30.14, the top end of its 52-week range, leaving A$30 as the level traders keep circling. (Market Index)
Some investors have been blunt about it. “It’s not enough,” said Jamie Hannah, deputy head of investments at VanEck, adding the bidders would likely need to lift the price to get shareholders “over the line”. Macquarie analysts said they expected the takeover battle to continue. (Reuters)
The risk is simple: the bidders could walk if they can’t get due diligence or shareholder support, and the share price could slide back toward pre-bid levels around A$24. That downside gets uglier if steel spreads stay weak or currency moves don’t help, because the board’s valuation case leans on a cyclical rebound. (Intelligent Investor)
Investors will watch for any revised proposal or fresh ASX statement when trading resumes on Monday, with the stock still sitting on the bid. Beyond that, the next hard date is BlueScope’s interim results on Feb. 16, when it may also announce an interim dividend, with ex-dividend trading flagged for Feb. 20 if applicable.
