The steel company Celsa has just signed a five-year extension of financing amounting to 525 million euros, according to sources consulted. The agreement that has just been signed is a step prior to the entry into the capital of the creditor funds that is expected for this month of November.
At the beginning of October, the creditor funds agreed with the Government on the conditions that they had to meet for the board of directors to validate their entry into the capital, as provided for in a court ruling. This movement implies that the Rubiralta family will lose 100% of the shares and that these will pass into the hands of creditors. The Government has demanded that Spanish partners also be in the capital. Among that group could be Siderno and Grupo CL.
The financing structure was planned through a loan for 250 million and 275 million through the factoring system (financing through invoices), reported Cinco Días. Finally, the operation has been signed in the last few hours with this distribution of mechanisms. explained the sources consulted. Among the signatory banks are CaixaBank, BBVA, Banc Sabadell, Abanca and Unicaja.
The signed pact is important for the company because it converts those 525 million in financing that had to be renewed every few months, into a longer-term mechanism (five years) that will give more stability to the new operations.
According to Spanish legislation, the approval of the Council of Ministers is mandatory for foreign investors to enter the capital of a company considered strategic, such as Celsa.
The agreement on the terms of the takeover comes after the name of several candidates to become industrial partners of Celsa, the Basque Sidenor and the Extremaduran Grupo CL emerged. In recent weeks, the Catalan company ACIN Recycling Metals has also shown its interest in taking over all or a percentage of Celsa’s recycling subsidiary (Ferimet), which has a turnover of around 500 million euros. Sources consulted indicate that the Generalitat “would welcome” a Catalan company keeping an important part of Celsa. ACIN invoices about 120 million.
The Government would like the Spanish industrial partner to have 25% of the shares of the steelworks based in Castellbisbal.
