In another developmentm, Esmark majority owner and CEO James Bouchard said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that his steelmaker, which does not publicly report its earnings, has cash for its $7.8 billion bid for U.S. Steel sitting in his bank account.
Bouchard said he had $10 billion available and Esmark itself had no debt. “I got $10 billion in cash in my bank account,” Bouchard said. He did not provide more details to verify he has access to the cash.
Bouchard added he was being advised on his offer for U.S. Steel by an “international bank” he declined to name, which was also willing to lend to him.
The former U.S. Steel executive said Esmark was “the third largest steelmaker in the country,” without elaborating with any figures.
In 2008, he sold another company of his with the same name to Russian steelmaker OAO Severstal for $1.3 billion. He subsequently bought back the Esmark name, trademark and intellectual property to create his latest steelmaker, which he says generates over $500 million in annual revenue.
Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this report.
