The Rubiralta family trusts the future of their stake in the Celsa company to the decision taken by the Spanish Government on whether or not to authorize foreign groups to take control of this large steel group.
In a statement, the current owners recalled yesterday that “the restructuring plan approved in court means the takeover by foreign investors of a strategic Spanish company”. Among the funds authorized to capitalize the debt in shares, firms such as SVP Global, Deutsche Bank, Sculptor, Cros Ocean, Anchorage, Golden Tree or Trinity Investments stand out, which come from countries such as Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom or the United States. In the statement, the Rubiralta family warned that “this fact, in accordance with law 19/2003 of July 4 on the legal regime of capital movements and economic transactions with the outside world, requires express authorization from Government of Spain”. In effect, the regulations oblige the Council of Ministers to authorize the takeover of 10% of the capital of strategic Spanish companies by foreign companies.
On Monday, the Ministry of Industry already expressed itself in the same sense and pointed out that the financial creditors must present a request for authorization to take control of the company. According to royal decree 571/2023, which was approved in July of this year and which came into force just six days ago with the aim of updating law 19/2003 cited by Celsa in its statement, the The Council of Ministers has three months (and not six, as the previous version of the regulations stated) to resolve the authorization.
It is still unknown if the funds have already started processing the request. The Spanish Government also does not specify when the issue, which is crucial for the economy, will be resolved. Celsa is a large steel group with an annual turnover of 6,000 million euros and employs around 10,000 people directly through a hundred companies in different countries around the world.
According to the Ministry of Industry’s press release on Monday, it does not appear that the Spanish Government should place a priori impediments to the change of ownership. The ministry refers to the investment funds as “new owners” of Celsa and assures that the Spanish Government has “maximum respect for the judicial decisions that must be complied with, as it cannot be in any other way”.
The sentence, handed down by commercial court number 2 of Barcelona, ??is final and does not allow for any appeal against it. It will be executed under the supervision of the company Lexaudit, which will be in charge of materializing the plan for the approval of the company’s debt into shares after having led the restructuring process.
Today, trade union representatives are meeting with managers of investment funds to address the future of thousands of jobs, and tomorrow, the workers’ representatives have been summoned by the Ministry of Business of the Generalitat, which is following closely the evolution of the company after the sentence has been handed down. In addition, Councilor Roger Torrent assured yesterday that he will meet with all the parties affected by the court decision and said that he will ensure that the integrity of the project is maintained.
At the same time, the investment funds are working to form Celsa’s new board of directors with profiles of recognized international prestige, while they study electing a new CEO to replace Francesc Rubiralta, until now CEO and member of the second generation familiar Foreign investment funds would be tempting various professional profiles with experience in the consulting and debt restructuring sectors of large companies.
