Foment del Treball will contact the new owners and managers of Celsa to find out about the road plans and the investments planned for the future of the company, which since its foundation in 1967 has been in the hands of the Rubiralta family. Although it ensures that it respects the sentence that gives control of the steel group to creditor funds, the Catalan employers demand that the integrity of the company be maintained, as well as the 10,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs that depend on it.
In addition, it asks that there be no divestments or dissolutions or divisions of the different Celsa business units, which will be chaired by former Gas Natural director Rafael Villaseca. “It is a strategic and essential company for the country, a leader in the circular steel company and a leading actor in innovation in its sector at an international level,” recalls the employers’ association in a statement.
For this reason, he has announced that he will talk with representatives of the Spanish Government and the Generalitat in order to ensure that Celsa “remains in the business fabric” of the country, and demands that the group not change its headquarters. Foment also remembers that the steel company is one of the first companies in Catalonia and Spain in contribution to the industrial GDP – billing 6,000 million a year – and generation of jobs.
The change in the ownership of the companies occurs after last Monday the head of the commercial court number 2 of Barcelona approved the plan of the creditor funds, which will convert part of their debt into shares and will become the new owners of the company replacing the Rubiralta family. Until now, the owners of Celsa entrust the future of their participation in the company to the decision made by the Government on whether or not to authorize foreign groups to take control of the multinational.
One of the main fears that lenders, including Strategic Value Partners, Deutsche Bank AG and Sculptor Capital Management, will take over the reins of the company is that its operations will end up moving outside of Spain, with the consequent loss of jobs. . That is why in the recent judicial decision, against which there is no appeal, the magistrate maintains that the creditor funds “must strictly comply with their commitments preserving and increasing the value of the company, maintaining its integrity, and decrees that they should not be ” alter the strategic decision centers that are so relevant for the economy as a whole”.
