Cleveland Cliffs Inc (CLF)

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Cliffs’ CEO Calls Share Buybacks Better Use of Money Than Deals

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Lourenco GoncalvesPhotographer: John Kuntz/AP Photo

By Guillermo Molero

April 22, 2024 at 4:59 PM EDT

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Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.’s top boss says buying back shares make more sense than takeovers — a view that underpins the US steelmaker’s decision to repurchase as much as $1.5 billion in stock.
“Buying our own stock is clearly a better use of capital than any M&A opportunities at current valuations — so that’s our primary focus,” Chief Executive Officer Lourenco Goncalves said Monday in the company’s first-quarter earnings statement.
The CEO’s comment comes about fourth months after Cliffs lost out in a bidding war for United States Steel Corp. to Nippon Steel Corp. Goncalves has been a vocal critic of the $14.1 billion takeover of the iconic American steelmaker by a Japanese company since then, calling it a severe miscalculation.
Read More: Cliffs CEO Lashes Out Over Losing US Steel Deal to Nippon
Shares of Cliffs were down 2.5% at 4:15 p.m. in after-market trading in New York after