Nippon Steel will sell its stake in South Korea’s POSCO Holdings to improve what it calls asset efficiency. The move by the Japanese company comes as it plans a multibillion dollar takeover of US Steel.
Japan’s biggest steelmaker made the announcement on Tuesday, saying it will sell almost 2.9 million shares in the South Korean steel giant. That’s roughly 3.4 percent of POSCO’s outstanding shares and worth about 800 million dollars.
Nippon Steel says it will maintain its strategic alliance with POSCO on issues such as carbon neutrality and mutual supply of some steel products.
Nippon Steel has been a POSCO shareholder since 1998. The two companies have long collaborated on research and development as well as tackling environmental challenges.