U.S. Steel Corp., the nation’s second-biggest producer of the alloy, plans to sell 17 million shares in a public offering, which would generate about $439 million at today’s price.
The company intends to grant underwriters a 30-day option to purchase as much as 2.55 million additional shares, the Pittsburgh-based company said Monday in a statement. The sale will be managed by banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Barclays Plc.
The statement was released after the end of regular trading in New York, where the shares fell 2.5% to $25.20.
U.S. Steel joins copper miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc. in tapping the equity market to raise money after metal producers’ shares rallied this year as prices stabilized from the biggest rout in a generation.
The steelmaker is benefiting from U.S. government efforts to stem a tide of cheap imports, which are pushing up prices just as costs decline after a series of cutbacks undertaken in an efficiency program labeled the Carnegie Way, named after founder Andrew Carnegie.
U.S. Steel shares have more than tripled this year, the best performance on the Bloomberg World Iron/Steel Index after South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore Ltd. Last year the stock lost 70%.
