On April 27, Japanese steelmakers Nippon Steel Corporation and Sumitomo Metal Industries jointly announced that they have reached a final agreement to integrate their businesses on October 1 this year, using a two-step legal procedure, consisting of a share exchange followed by an absorption-type merger on the same day.
Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal had entered into their ‘master integration agreement' in September 2011. Subsequently, the companies continued to have discussions on various occasions. The companies signed a share exchange agreement and a merger agreement after approval at a meeting of the board of directors of each company held today, April 27.
According to the joint statement, the share exchange and the absorption-type merger mentioned above are expected to be implemented after approval at the annual shareholders' meeting to be held by each company, scheduled on June 26 this year.