Financial Times reported that a court in the city of Liege last week upheld a request by workers at Liberty Steel subsidiary to start the restructuring and appointed a legal representative to oversee the sale of the two plants at Flémalle and Tilleur. The court ruled “Under the process, which is designed to protect the business from creditors and will initially run until the end of next April, the plants will be managed by a second court appointee and a buyer would be sought for all or part of the operations.” Liberty Steel Group, the management team of Liberty Liège and its unions jointly requested the Liège Enterprise Court’s opening of a judicial reorganization for its Liège plants, which has now been granted. The company’s management team, its unions and the court-appointed administrators will now work collaboratively with other stakeholders to identify and realize strategic options for the business, including its sale The two Belgian steel plants, which together employ about 650 people, operate under GFG’s steel arm, Liberty Steel Group. GFG acquired the sites and a facility in Dudelange, Luxembourg, from ArcelorMittal in 2018. Mr Gupta in May successfully appealed against a decision that called for the Belgian business to be liquidated after a judge rejected a restructuring plan. Since then, however, soaring energy prices in Europe in the wake of the war in Ukraine, coupled with falling customer demand, have severely affected operations at the two plants, which have been idled for several weeks.
Financial Times reported that a court in the city of Liege last week upheld a request by workers at Liberty Steel subsidiary to start the restructuring and appointed a legal representative to oversee the sale of the two plants at Flémalle and Tilleur. The court ruled “Under the process, which is designed to protect the business from creditors and will initially run until the end of next April, the plants will be managed by a second court appointee and a buyer would be sought for all or part of the operations.” Liberty Steel Group, the management team of Liberty Liège and its unions jointly requested the Liège Enterprise Court’s opening of a judicial reorganization for its Liège plants, which has now been granted. The company’s management team, its unions and the court-appointed administrators will now work collaboratively with other stakeholders to identify and realize strategic options for the business, including its sale The two Belgian steel plants, which together employ about 650 people, operate under GFG’s steel arm, Liberty Steel Group. GFG acquired the sites and a facility in Dudelange, Luxembourg, from ArcelorMittal in 2018. Mr Gupta in May successfully appealed against a decision that called for the Belgian business to be liquidated after a judge rejected a restructuring plan. Since then, however, soaring energy prices in Europe in the wake of the war in Ukraine, coupled with falling customer demand, have severely affected operations at the two plants, which have been idled for several weeks.
