(Reuters) – Activist investor Ancora Holdings is preparing to wage a proxy battle on U.S. Steel and wants the company to throw out its merger agreement with Japan’s Nippon Steel, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing sources.
Ancora also intends to rally shareholders around a plan to oust US Steel’s top boss, David Burritt, the report said.
The activist investor is not interested in selling the U.S. steelmaker to another party, the WSJ reported, adding that Ancora has named nine director candidates to its 12-person board, including Relko (Former head of TSX Alan Kestenbaum.
Ancora, US Steel and Nippon Steel did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment outside regular business hours.
Earlier this month, former US President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion US Steel deal and delayed until June an order for Nippon to abandon the bid.
The companies sued the Biden administration for blocking the acquisition of American steel by a Japanese company.
