Ascometal received offers to take over all enterprises

The 1,200 employees of steel group Ascometal France, which announced on Wednesday it would go into administration after the collapse of its plan to sell three of its production sites and a research center to Italian group Venete, may be able to look to the future with greater serenity. The steel group, which specializes in metals especially for the automotive industry, has just announced takeover bids for all of its businesses.

After previous adjustments in 2014 and 2017, Ascometal is undergoing such a procedure for the third time in ten years. “The company is struggling and has significant funding needs. We must be able to continue to invest in industrial facilities during the crisis in the European steel market,” explained a company representative.

Ascometal’s “automotive cluster” consists of three of the group’s five French production sites in Hagondange (Moselle), Custine (Meurthe et Moselle) and Marais (Loire), specializing in the production of small-diameter special steels. over 80 mm, mainly intended for the automotive industry and the Ascometal Special Steels Research Center (Creas) in Hagondange.

In 2018, the Swiss group Schmolz&Bickenbach (renamed Swiss Steel in 2020) acquired five Ascometal plants (Hagondange, Custine, Marais, Fos-sur-Mer and Dunkirk, but not the Ascoval plant in Saint-Solvay in the north), which then had 1,350 employees. The group has announced that it wants to sell and is also seeking to separate itself from Ascometal France’s two other operations, in Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) and Dunkirk (North), which produce larger diameter steel.

Return of Veneta

Among these proposals, Italy’s Acciaierie Venete, which came forward in December before leaving, is again offering to take over the “automotive cluster” of the French group, which has about 700 employees in Lorraine and the Marais (Loire), Ascometal explained. representative. Venete’s new offer covers the same scope as the first offer, namely three of the group’s five French production sites in Hagondange (Moselle), Custine (Meurthe-et-Moselle) and Marais (Loire), as well as Ascometal. Research Center for Special Steels (Creas) in Hagondange.

The Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) site is the subject of a takeover project by its employees, already announced on Thursday, as well as an offer from another Italian industrialist, Marcegaglia, which concerns only part of the activities and employees. The company employs about 330 people. “Our desire is to ensure a continuation plan with all employees,” Olivier Matheu, general secretary of the union of Bouches-du-Rhône departments, assured during a press conference on Thursday. This project, led by CGT, will require €150 million in funding to be provided by the government and the Bank of Public Investment (BPI). This takeover will result in a transitional joint management comprising employee representatives as well as the regional prefect, the mayor of Fos-sur-Mer and the constituency MP.

Finally, the Dunkirk factory, which employs 170 people, is the subject of a bid from the Spanish company Sidenor, which in 2017 offered to take over the entire company.

However, all these offers are accompanied by conditions precedent, the company representative emphasized, and the courts have given themselves until the end of June to identify the buyer(s). “The challenge in the coming weeks is to lift these suspensive conditions, as well as to achieve improvements from these competing proposals,” an Ascometal spokesman explained.