Troubled Romanian steelworks Liberty Galati will seek a strategic investor to acquire its steel mill through a tender in March, says Remus Borza, president of Euro Insol, the company’s bankruptcy administrator.
“We will organize the international auction on 12 March and the participation guarantee will be 7%,” he is reported as saying in Ziarul Financiar.
“The asset valuation was carried out by the Romanian company Darian, which specialises in industrial and real estate asset valuations. As part of the sale procedure, 13 investors have expressed interest in taking over the plant so far,” he adds.
Among those interested are industrial groups from India, China, Turkey, Ukraine and Iraq, as well as the Romanian company UMB Grup, Kallanish notes.
Also on the list of potential buyers are JSW Steel and Jindal Group from India, DeLong Steel from China, KMC Steel from Turkey, Galiawa Group from Iraq and Metinvest from Ukraine. The Ukrainian group is already present in Romania, after its acquisition of the ArcelorMittal Tubular Products factory, which completed in December.
Liberty Galati and Euro Insol had not replied to requests for comment by Kallanish at the publication deadline.
Liberty Galati has amended an earlier restructuring plan proposed by the two administrators, which was approved by the Galati County Court.
The plant has annual production capacity of around 2.5 million tonnes of steel for the construction, naval, oil and gas, and power generation sectors. It was acquired by Liberty Steel Group from ArcelorMittal in July 2019.
The plant is part of the Liberty Group and entered into a preventive arrangement in March 2024, in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy. Since then, the plant’s activity has been severely affected.
Last summer, Liberty Galati resumed operations at its metallurgical plant following a pause of almost a year.
