Greybull acquires Ascometal
UK investment group Greybull Capital has been awarded France-based Ascometal’s four plants, which are currently facing insolvency, the Strasbourg administrative tribunal has ruled.
According to the ruling document obtained by Kallanish, the steelmaker will officially become part of Greybull on 20 July. Sources close to the matter say the French government will provide a €45 million ($43m) loan to the new company this year and €40m next year to support its relaunch. €90m will be injected by the buyer.
Acciaierie Vente, Sidenor, and France’s Europlasma were among the steel companies that had initially submitted offers to acquire the units but have since withdrawn. The Greybull offer is for the plants located in Hagondange, Custines, Saint-Etienne, and the Leffrinckoucke-based les Dunes unit in the north. Marcegaglia acquired Ascometal’s Fos-sur-Mer site in the south of France in May and has intentions to convert it into a coil production plant (see Kallanish 3 June).
Greybull plans to make investments and foster collaboration between the plants, specifically Hagondange and les Dunes. With the goal of diversifying production and expanding sales, the fund plans to install a new ingot line in Hagondange and revamp the rolling mill in Les Dune. This will help reduce the sites’ reliance on the automotive sector, the Ascometal trade unions have said. Greybull plans to finance the investments through debt, Kallanish understands.
In March, Ascometal, part of Swiss Steel, was declared insolvent and went into receivership after the proposed sale of its units to Italian long steel producer Acciaierie Venete was terminated (see Kallanish 28 March).
Greybull acquired what is today known as British Steel from Tata Steel in 2016 but the steelmaker then went into administration in 2019 before it was bought by Jingye Group. Greybull was also reported interested in buying the Ascoval plant and Hayange rail mill from Liberty in 2021, although they were ultimately acquired by Saarstahl.
Greybull did not comment before press deadline.
Natalia Capra France
Marcegaglia to invest in slab caster, coil mill
Italian steel producer Marcegaglia will take over French specialty steelmaker Ascometal, including its Fos-sur-Mer plant, where it will invest €600mn ($652mn) to expand an electric arc furnace (EAF), and build a slab caster and hot-rolling mill.
A ruling today by the Strasbourg judicial court officiated Marcegaglia as the buyer of the troubled steelmaker, which was undergoing bankruptcy proceedings.
Marcegaglia plans to increase the output of the EAF to 1mn-1.2mn t/yr. A hot-rolled coil plant will be built with a capacity of 1.6mn-2mn t/yr, which will be supplied by a new continuous slab caster, to replace existing ingot production.
The site will then meet 30pc of Marcegaglia’s steel requirements.
“This important acquisition is part of the group’s global strategy, with the aim of integrating the entire value chain into our production. The grand port of Marseille is located in a strategic position in terms of raw materials and logistics,” company owners Antonio and Emma Marcegaglia said.
This is a key acquisition and expansion for the Italian re-roller, especially in the context of the European Commission’s proposal this week to further restrict imports of hot-rolled coils (HRC) – of which Marcegaglia is the biggest buyer in Europe. The EC plans to introduce a 15pc limit to each importing country’s access to the “other countries” HRC quota.
