BlueScope assesses $13b takeover bid from Stokes’ SGH

Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

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1.

Steel deal: BlueScope Steel said that it is evaluating a $13 billion takeover bid from Kerry Stokes’ SGH, which would see SGH acquire all of BlueScope’s shares at a price of $30 per share, and then on-sell BlueScope’s North American businesses to US player Steel Dynamics. BlueScope confirmed that it received an unsolicited, non-binding indicative proposal from the consortium on 12 December 2025 and that the proposal remains subject to a number of conditions including highly conditional debt funding support. The company added that it has previously considered and rejected three separate unsolicited takeover offers, including by a different Steel Dynamics-led consortium which in 2024 offered $27.50 and then $29 per share for BlueScope. In 2025, Steel Dynamics again approached BlueScope with a deal valuing the North American business at $24 per share. BlueScope said the approaches were rejected as they “significantly undervalued BlueScope” and presented significant execution risk. BlueScope has appointed UBS as financial adviser and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer as legal adviser. (ASX)(The Australian)(AFR)(The West Australian)(Capital Brief)

2.

Not guilty: Nicolás Maduro appeared before a federal judge in Lower Manhattan on Monday local time and pleaded not guilty to US charges including narco-terrorism, two days after US forces seized the ousted Venezuelan president in a military raid on Caracas. Wearing prison garb after being escorted off a helicopter in shackles by armed guards, Maduro told the court he was still president of Venezuela and that he was there, “kidnapped”. “I am innocent,” Maduro said through an interpreter. “I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country.” His wife, Cilia Flores, also pleaded not guilty. Facing the possibility of life in a US prison, Maduro is represented by Barry Pollack, known for defending Julian Assange, and court-appointed New York lawyer David Wikstrom. US prosecutors accuse him of running a cocaine trafficking network with armed groups and cartels. His son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, who is also charged in the US indictment, condemned the capture. Meanwhile, at an emergency Security Council meeting, UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo said she was “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected”. The US defended the raid as lawful. US ambassador Mike Waltz said the US was not occupying Venezuela, but enforcing a preexisting indictment against Maduro, whom he called a fugitive and leader of a narco-terrorist group. Waltz said Trump had offered Maduro “multiple off-ramps” before the raid and argued that the US could not allow the world’s largest energy reserves to remain under the control of adversaries. That, as Donald Trump continued claiming the US was “in charge” of Venezuela, a direct contradiction of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who just hours earlier had said the administration would pressure the new leadership into cooperation rather than take control. (Capital Brief)(NYT)(Reuters)(Bloomberg)

3.

Markets rally: US stocks climbed on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaking above 49,000 for the first time, as gains in tech, energy and defence shares offset concerns about geopolitical risk following the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Investors snapped up megacap tech stocks, while energy shares rallied after President Donald Trump floated plans for a US-led revival of Venezuela’s oil sector. Reuters reported that, in the weeks before Maduro’s capture, US officials told oil executives they would need to return to Venezuela and fund the revival of its oil industry themselves if they hoped to recover billions in assets expropriated by previous governments. After that report, a number of unnamed oil executives told Reuters the Trump administration did not consult them before or after Maduro’s capture, but said meetings with officials are now planned for later this week. Chevron, the only US oil major still operating in Venezuela, rose alongside Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and oilfield-services firms. Gold rose USD4,445.62 an ounce and silver was up nearly 6%, as demand for safe havens increased as tensions added to global uncertainty. Separately, ISM data showed US factory activity shrank in December at the fastest pace since 2024, with the PMI falling to 47.9. (Bloomberg)(WSJ)(Reuters)

4.

NATO threat: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that if the US were to carry out a military attack on Greenland, it would bring NATO to a halt. In interviews with Danish broadcasters DR and TV2, Frederiksen said US President Donald Trump appeared “serious” about wanting to take over the island, and that “if the US chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, everything stops”. Trump had earlier told reporters on Air Force One that “we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security” and said, “we’ll worry about Greenland in about two months”. Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen described the rhetoric from Washington as “disrespectful” and “entirely unacceptable”, declaring, “no more fantasies of annexation”. Norway’s foreign minister Espen Barth Eide also told Aftenposten that a US attack on Greenland would break the idea of NATO. European leaders including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer have expressed support for Denmark. Frederiksen said Denmark has a defence agreement that allows a US base in Greenland, but stressed the kingdom “will of course not accept and not tolerate a situation in which we and Greenland are threatened in this way”. (FT)(Bloomberg)(Capital Brief)

5.

Revenue surge: Major Nvidia partner, Foxconn, reported a 22% surge in fourth-quarter revenues as tech firms beefed up spending on AI infrastructure. Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, reported revenues of TW$2.6028 trillion ($120 billion) up 26.51% quarter-on-quarter and 22.07% year-on-year. Foxconn’s cumulative revenue in 2025 reached TW$8.1 trillion ($384.8 billion), up 18.07% year-on-year, marking the highest annual record for the company. The figures topped analyst expectations of TW$2.4 trillion, according to LSEG estimates. The world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, which makes servers that hold chips in data centres, said that its component and cloud businesses demonstrated strong growth during the quarter. Foxconn, which also assembles Apple’s iPhone devices, said that Q4 revenue exceeded “our expectation of significant growth, causing a high base for the first quarter.” In November the company inked a deal with OpenAI to collaborate on designs for next-generation AI infrastructure hardware. (Foxconn)(CNBC)(Reuters)(Capital Brief)

6.

Smart money Navigator: Regal Funds Management, L1 Capital Management and Perpetual Investments are among a who’s-who of Australian investing who have been piling into a newly-revived 25-year-old stock that boasts exposures to the hottest trends in global markets. The flood of smart money into Navigator Global Investments, formerly Lighthouse Partners, has underpinned an 86% gain in the name over the past year. And it's not just ASX smart money that is behind the company. USD300 billion ($450 billion) New York-based alternatives giant Blue Owl is the company's single biggest shareholder. “Many of our investors are asset managers so they understand alignment, but they can’t get exposure to alternatives. Navigator provides a unique way of doing it,” chief executive Stephen Darke tells Capital Brief. Under Navigator’s 'GP-staking' model, it takes strategic stakes in global alternative asset managers who aim to generate absolute returns (rather than chasing benchmarks) for their own investors. (Capital Brief)

7.

Expansion pack: Funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management and other investors have agreed to invest USD1.2 billion ($1.8 billion) into the building-products distributor, QXO, to support acquisition opportunities. QXO said that the financing will be in convertible preferred stock, with the investors’ initial conversion price into common stock USD23.25 per share. The new stock will pay a preferred dividend rate of 4.75% per annum. Shares in QXO had climbed over 13% as of 10:25am ET (2:25am AEDT Tues). Bloomberg reported that Franklin Templeton is among other firms backing the investment and that a significant condition to securing the financing that QXO must acquire at least one company by mid-July. Billionaire dealmaker Brad Jacobs, who helms QXO, led a hostile takeover attempt of rival GMS for USD5 billion in 2025, which was ultimately sold to Home Depot and completed the purchase of Beacon Roofing Supply last year for USD11 billion. (QXO)(Bloomberg)(Capital Brief)

8.

Walz exits: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Democrats’ 2024 vice-presidential pick, ended his campaign for a third term, saying political attacks and fallout from a high-profile fraud investigation made it impossible to fully govern while running for re-election. The 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee said “every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota.” His announcement comes after months of Republican criticism and renewed attention on fraud in state-funded child care programs, including a viral video alleging misuse of government aid by Somali-run day care centres. The Trump administration cited the video when cutting off federal funding streams, and a top federal prosecutor recently said more than USD9 billion ($13.4 billion) may have been stolen from over a dozen programs. Walz defended his administration, saying it had “made systemic changes to the way we do business” in response to organised criminal activity targeting state programs. His withdrawal reshapes the 2026 race in a Democratic-leaning state. Senator Amy Klobuchar is considering a run, a person close to her told media. (Bloomberg)(AP)(Axios)