GFG considers sale of French steel mills

The United Kingdom-based GFG Alliance has reportedly hired France-based Rothschild bank to help sell two steel plants in France. GFG has been seeking alternative financing and funding methods since the collapse of Greensill Capital in March.

The London-based Financial Times says the two mills being marketed by GFG and the investment bank are the Ascoval and Hayange facilities it acquired in August 2020.

The plants were purchased from France Rail Industry, with the Ascoval facility being an electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill that supplies semi-finished steel to the Hayange facility, where it is converted into rail.

The Ascoval facility in Saint-Saulve, France, uses “EAF technology and has the capability to produce 600,000 metric tons of steel blooms, billets and other forged products annually from recycled scrap metal,” GFG Alliance business unit Liberty Steel stated in the August 2020 press release announcing the purchase.

“Hayange, located in Moselle, France, manufactures a wide range of steel rails for nationally significant infrastructure clients including France’s national rail operator SNCF and RATP, the operator of Paris’ metro system, [and] produces over 300,000 metric tons of rail per year,” Liberty wrote of that facility.

About a week before the Financial Times article, GFG and Liberty Steel posted messages on their websites updating customers on the search for financing and announcing the establishment of a Restructuring & Transformation Committee (RTC).

Although at one time GFG chair Sanjeev Gupta had expressed a desire to retain all the company’s metals production assets, the RTC has been given “full autonomy to restructure Liberty’s operations to focus on core profitable units, and either fix or sell underperforming units,” according to the news release announcing its formation.