The Catalan steel company Celsa is open to creditor funds taking part of the capital to unblock the negotiation of its debt and the support of 550 million euros from SEPI approved in June but still pending delivery, as reported by Expansión on Thursday. Company sources declined to comment.
Sources close to the negotiation point out that negotiations with the funds have resumed and right now there are two new elements on the table, an exchange of equities for debt and a new additional debt vehicle yet to be defined that would collect the difference. The possibility of assigning a stake represents a change in the negotiations, something that until now had not been considered. The figure would not exceed 49%, so that the Rubiralta family does not remain in a minority.
The company chaired by Francesc Rubiralta is immersed in a complex legal process with its creditors. The debts are the legacy of an important investment process with improvements in the group’s ovens and purchases in some European countries in the 2000s. In the last 15 years, when the company has carried out its greatest growth, which was altered by the world crisis of 2008, which led to the need to refinance Celsa’s debt in Spain in 2017. The other turning point was the covid, which ended up leading to help from SEPI.
With a record turnover of 5,283 million euros in 2021 and a gross profit (ebitda) of 600 million, based on the latest known figures, Celsa is the first private industrial group in Catalonia and the fifth in Spain. Globally it employs about 12,000 workers.
