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(Updated all along with additional statements, forecasts)
PARIS, February 26 (Reuters) – State, local elected officials and employee representatives agreed Tuesday to give an extra month to find a buyer for the steel mill Ascoval of Saint-Saulve (North) after the cancellation of the buyer, the French group -belge Altifort, lack of funds.
"We give ourselves an extra month to save the site of Ascoval," said Tuesday the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Mayor after a meeting with the stakeholders of the file.
"It's worth fighting for Ascoval (…), it's worth it for employees and it's worth it economically since there are now orders for the site," he said .
The determination displayed by the Minister was also apparent to the other participants in the meeting.
"We will go to the end," said Bruno Kopczynski, spokesman for the inter-union Ascoval.
"A month is short but we do not start from a blank page," said the president of the region of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand (ex-Republicans).
Beyond an order book that is filling "faster (…) than we had expected", according to Ascoval President Cédric Orban, Xavier Bertrand recalled that the public funding proposed in the context of the recovery plan submitted by Altifort remained on the table, provided that they supplement private funds.
Regarding the profile of potential buyers, Cédric Orban talked to journalists about half a dozen manufacturers but also investment funds, "which have appeared recently".
SERIES OF INDUSTRIAL RETURNS
Altifort, a company created in 2014 in special steels, was to provide 10 million equity and 25 million bond funds, out of the 152 million euros of the financing plan. The state and local authorities contributed 47 million euros, the balance from banks, including the Public Investment Bank BPI France.
The fact that Altifort failed to raise the necessary funds was felt as a "big blow" by the employees of the site, said Cédric Orban.
Bart Gruyaert, the boss of Altifort, left the meeting alone after about twenty minutes and Bruno Le Maire then told the press that he called the company that "cheated employees (…), the elected local authorities (…) and the State "to withdraw and" cease all participation in this dossier ".
At the end of the meeting, Xavier Bertrand said focus on the resumption of the site in the immediate future but hinted that it would then clarify the conditions in which Altifort could be considered a reliable buyer when he finally failed to raise the funds needed for the recovery.
A hearing of the commercial chamber of the Strasbourg court is scheduled Wednesday to record the failure to carry out the recovery plan and to note the continuation of the process of bankruptcy for the site, which has 281 employees.
As a joint venture between Ascometal (60%) and Vallourec (40%), Ascoval was excluded at the beginning of 2018 from the scope of Ascometal when the group, in bankruptcy, was taken over by the Swiss group Schmolz + Bickenbach.
This failed takeover by Altifort is yet another setback for the government in the wake of the rejection of the Alstom-Siemens merger by the European Commission earlier this month and the prospect of a closure of the Ford plant. of Blanquefort next summer, sealed Monday. (Myriam Rivet, edited by Yves Clarisse)
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