The Stokes family-controlled SGH and its US bid partner Steel Dynamics on Wednesday offered to acquire BlueScope Steel for about $15 billion, or $32.35 per share.
After accounting for shareholder dividends, their new offer is a 13 per cent premium to their previous offer of $13 billion, or $30-per-share, which was rejected by BlueScope as undervaluing its assets and potential.
Steel Dynamics and SGH said the new non-binding offer was their best and final bid, unless a superior, competing proposal emerged.
Their plan still involves splitting up BlueScope, with SGH keeping its Australian and other regional operations and on-selling the North American operations to Steel Dynamics, if the bid is successful.
"SGH and SDI look forward to productive engagement with BSL to progress our customary due diligence requirements, transaction documentation and to a successful completion of the acquisition," they said.
BlueScope's board is now considering the proposal.
"As part of its evaluation, the Board of BlueScope will consider the proposal relative to the fundamental value of the Company, along with the conditionality and executability of the proposal," BlueScope said.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Owen Birrell said that while the consortium sees its offer as representing compelling value, it was probably more of a tool to put pressure on the BlueScope board to allow the pair to conduct due diligence, rather than a "knock-out" offer.
BlueScope's board rejected the prior proposal as "very significantly" undervaluing BlueScope, Mr Birrell noted.
"We do not expect that a 13 per cent increase is sufficient to bridge the prior gap to the board's view of fundamental value," he wrote.
Australian Super, BlueScope's largest shareholder with a 13.52 per cent stake, declined to comment on Wednesday.Â
It had backed the board's rejection of the previous offer.
Bluescope chief executive Tania Archibald told investors at a results briefing on Monday that the company intended to lift its shareholder distribution target to return 75 per cent of free cash flow, up from its previous target of 50 per cent.
The Port Kembla steelworks owner posted a first-half net profit for 2025/26 of $390.8 million, up 118 per cent from the same time a year ago.
In addition to the Port Kembla steelworks in southern NSW, BlueScope has the North Star operation in the US state of Ohio, which uses scrap to produce hot-rolled steel at low cost.
BlueScope Steel shares rose by more than 2.7 per cent to $28.75 by noon, which was well short of the latest bid price.
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