UK-based industrial group Liberty House is set to buy the French rail producer Hayange, which was formerly part of the British Steel group, a source close to the matter told S&P Global Platts on July 27.
Other bidders included the world's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal, French special steel producer Ascoval through its holding company Greybull Capital, German steel producer Saarstahl, India's JSW Steel via its Italian rail unit producer JSW Piombino and Hayange's former owner, British Steel.
Chinese steelmaker Jingye bought British Steel's UK and Netherlands assets earlier this year after the UK-based steelmaker went into liquidation in May 2019. Hayange, however, was not included in this transaction.
The French government had put Hayange up for sale in 2019 separately as it considered the company a strategic asset. The government put in charge the Tribunal of Strasbourg for the sale.
Hayange produces between 250,000-300,000 mt of rails a year, most of them for France's state-owned railway company, SNCF.
The companies interested in Hayange presented their offers together with business plans on June 29 to the Social and Economic Committee, or CSE, of French Rail Industry in Hayange, and then to the Tribunal of Strasbourg.
All the bidders put their bid independently but Liberty has an agreement to buy Ascoval once the transaction for Hayange is cleared by the French authorities in a couple of days.
"We expect now that the French government will give Liberty its greenlight very soon. There is a contract between Liberty and Olympus, our current shareholder, that says that as soon as Liberty is the owner of Hayange, Liberty will buy 100% of the Ascoval shares from Olympus," Ascoval CEO Cédric Orban confirmed to Platts on July 27.
Ascoval is a supplier of Hayange and recently won an order to supply 140,000 mt of blooms to Hayange for the manufacture of rails for SNCF. The order will become effective from September 2020 and last for four years. Ascoval was taken over by Olympus Steel, the former owner of British Steel, before the latter entered liquidation last year.
Liberty is focused on growth and for the time being does not produce rails. However, a combination with Ascoval could bring it into a new product area while at the same time allowing it to expand.
Liberty did not respond to Platts' queries regarding the deal.
