ArcelorMittal reaches agreement with Liberty House for European assets
ArcelorMittal announced that it has received a binding offer from Liberty House Group for the acquisition of ArcelorMittal Dudelange (Luxembourg) and the following finishing lines at ArcelorMittal Liège (Belgium): hot dipped galvanising lines 4 and 5 in Flemalle; and hot-rolled pickling, cold rolling and tin packaging lines in Tilleur. The assets are the final part of a divestment package the Company agreed with the European Commission during its merger control investigation into the Company’s acquisition of Ilva S.p.A. The group has struck a conditional agreement to buy the Flemalle and Tilleur sites which employ a total of around 700 people near Liege, Belgium and the circa 300-people Dudelange, Luxembourg facility. The three mills, serving the construction, industrial and automotive markets, have a combined annual manufacturing capacity of 2.1 million tons of cold rolled steel, 2 million tons of galvanised steel, and 200 Ktons of tin plated steel.
The announcement closely follows the statement last month (12th October) that Liberty had reached conditional agreement with ArcelorMittal to acquire major integrated works at Galati in Romania and Ostrava in the Czech Republic, along with mills at Skopje in Macedonia and Piombino in Italy.
Both deals are subject to approval by the European Commission and other local processes including the conclusion of information consultations with local and European Works Councils.
Referring to the plants in Belgium and Luxembourg, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance Sanjeev Gupta said that “These are high quality, landmark assets with skilled and experienced workforces that we are looking forward to welcoming into the worldwide GFG fold. Our aim will be to develop close working relationships with respective governments, trade unions and other local stakeholders in Belgium and Luxembourg to optimise and improve the value of these historic assets that are important for the regional and national economies.”
Source : Strategic Research Institute