A commercial court in Barcelona has a very transcendent decision on its hands because the future of one of the main Spanish companies is at stake, and also because of the precedent that its decision will set. Celsa, the first European producer of low-emission circular steel, is considered a strategic company by the Government of Spain and for this reason it was granted a financing plan of 550 million euros through SEPI. This aid has not arrived because the steel company entered into losses and is in the hands of creditor funds. The trial began on Monday, which will end on July 11, in which it will be clarified whether the company remains in the hands of the current owners, the Rubiralta family, or whether it will end up in the bottom line.
The current managers of Celsa fear that if the creditors keep the company, the first thing they will do is sell it to the highest bidder and divide it into different companies. After all, they are investors who don’t know the industry. In their defense, the spokesmen of these groups claim that, if they win the court case, they will seek an “independent” board of directors to control the company after relieving the positions of trust.
We are not talking about just any company. Celsa is the first private industrial group in Catalonia and, according to some sources, employs more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs. I doubt that a company of this type in countries around us, such as France or Germany, would have reached this situation without an intervention from the administrations.
The Rubiralta family is willing to cede 49% of the capital to the funds, but these funds are not satisfied and that is why they have presented an approved restructuring plan that will give them ownership and convert the debt into shares. Creditors include Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs. The solemnity of the great speeches of many political leaders in favor of the industrialization of the country and, on the other hand, the scant response to the survival of a company as important as this is striking. In a few days we will be out of doubt with the judicial decision. There is a lot at stake.
