The Hauts-de-France regional council voted on Tuesday to abandon part of the loan of 12 million euros granted to the Ascoval steelworks (North), lifting one of the conditions precedent to finalize the resumption of the factory owned by Liberty Steel, in difficulty, by Saarstahl.
Read also: How Bercy forced Gupta to sell Ascoval and Hayange
As part of the negotiations between Liberty Steel, Saarstahl, the conciliator and the public creditors, "public creditors
are asked to abandon part of their loan (...) before July 31
", to "
alleviate the debt of the company Liberty Ascoval
”and avoid the opening of collective proceedings, we can read in the deliberation.
Cash consumed
According to the text, "
beyond this date and taking into account the refusal of the Liberty shareholder to support its subsidiaries, the treasuries of Liberty Ascoval and Liberty Rail (Hayange) will be completely consumed
". The agreement in principle to abandon part of the loan granted in 2019 is given by the region, chaired by Xavier Bertrand, "
subject to the approval, by the Paris commercial court, of the conciliation agreement signed between the parties
”. The exact amount of the forgiven debt, which was to be “
a large part
” of the loan, will be determined later. This measure did not achieve political unanimity.
"
This debt waiver without any guarantee is not acceptable
", argued Sébastien Chenu (RN).
"
The rescue plans follow one another without any conditionality
", regretted Julien Poix (LFI).
On the side of the majority, Jean-Michel Michalak defended the measure, estimating in particular that Saarstahl is a "
solid buyer
", that "
this takeover allows promising industrial synergies
" and that the steel plant, which employs "
300 employees today
», Is currently recruiting a fifth team.
The German steel group Saarstahl confirmed on July 2 the conclusion of an agreement in principle for the takeover of the ailing sites of Ascoval and Hayange (Moselle), a takeover which should be effective at the end of July.
To read also: Ascoval and Hayange: effective takeover by the German Saarstahl expected this summer
In May, Liberty Steel, owner of the two sites for less than a year, announced that it was looking for buyers, due to financial difficulties encountered by its boss, the British tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, and his family holding company GFG Alliance.
