The Strasbourg court will deliver a highly anticipated decision on July 8 on the future of the steel group Ascometal and its 800 employees, which is in receivership, after examining the only remaining takeover offer on Friday.
After the withdrawal of the French group Europlasma, which had submitted a takeover offer covering all business sites and 650 employees, the last offer present is that made by the British investment fund Greybull, which proposes to take over almost all employees (only 23 jobs in the holding company would be eliminated).
The offer is conditional on aid of several tens of millions of euros from the State.
According to Bercy, “this offer was made possible by significant financial support from the State which, if validated by the court, would take the form of a loan of 45 million euros in the very short term to promote solid and sustainable growth for the company in compliance with the State aid regime.”
Greybull’s offer “provides for 175 million in total investments, but the bulk of the sum must be provided by the State,” Yann Amadoro, CGT delegate, told AFP at the end of the hearing held before the commercial chamber of the court.
“The state must provide 85 million and Greybull 90 million euros, but Greybull’s funding would not arrive for another year, which means that the state must put up money very quickly,” explained Mr. Amadoro.
According to him, the cash available at Ascometal would not allow the activity to continue beyond two weeks.
“We are not reassured,” confided the union leader, two days before the first round of the legislative elections. “Who will care about us on July 8?”, after a second round that could reshuffle the cards politically, he wondered.
“The political context is not stable,” Alain Hilbold of the CFDT also told AFP. “We are hopeful that the court will rule favorably, but there are still some gray areas, particularly regarding financing,” he added about Greybull’s offer.
Ascometal has a steelworks in Hagondange (Moselle) and three machining and finishing sites, in Custines (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Saint-Étienne (in the Marais district) and Leffrinckoucke (Nord).
Greybull’s project plans to invest in an “ingot line” in Hagondange, intended to produce ingots for the manufacture of shells, and to reopen the rolling mill in Dunkirk (Dunes factory) which had been closed in 2019.
The future of the Fos-sur-Mer steelworks (Bouches-du-Rhône – 330 employees) was decided by the court on May 31: it is to be taken over by the Italian industrialist Marcegaglia.
