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Owned by the British steel group Liberty Steel, in great financial difficulty, the Ascoval steelworks in the North and the Hayange rail factory in Moselle arouse envy. Three groups, Saarstahl, Beltrame and ArcelorMittal, are indeed interested in taking them over, we learned from union sources on Wednesday.
The Venetian Steelworks, which were part of the last four of the candidates for the takeover and planned to hand over “23 million (euros) of the debt”, finally threw in the towel in the evening, indicated Nacim Bardi, CGT delegate to Ascoval and Djamal Hamdani, CFDT delegate in Hayange. This Thursday from 8:30 am, the two sites have an extraordinary CSE by videoconference “with three quarters of an hour of interview with each” of the three potential buyers, said Djamal Hamdani.
A symbolic euro
Saarstahl, “who did not want Ascoval a year and a half ago” and demanded “state aid between 50 and 60 million euros”, finally “reviewed his copy” Wednesday evening and now asks more help, added the trade unionist. ArcelorMittal and Beltrame were not asking for it, he said. In the end, the three remaining candidates “would buy each site a symbolic euro”. Saarsthal also indicated in a press release that he wanted to make Hayange “a key asset to contribute to the European strategy of ecological transition of mobility” and Ascoval “the backbone of green steel” of his group.
Each site will have a new independent CSE Monday at 4.30 pm “The government wants to complete everything by the end of the month,” added Djamal Hamdani. According to Ascoval CGT delegate, Nacim Bardi, “the problem is that Liberty has not officially said: ‘I am ceding the sites'”. Before the withdrawal of the Venetian Steelworks, a source close to Ascoval management had confirmed four “serious” takeover offers, but underlined the “legal complexity” of the process, which she said should be completed by July 15. “Liberty must agree to sell (…) The preferred procedure is that known as” prepack cession “, an acquisition transaction without going through a collective safeguard or receivership procedure”, she added. . Above all, “the State, having invested a lot of money in a strategic sector, considers that it has a say”. The soap opera is therefore not over.
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