Debt-stricken Italian steelmaker Lucchini has announced in a press release that, with the completion of due diligence, a potential investor for its Piombino-based mill is to file a concrete purchase offer in the last 10 days of November.
Although unnamed in the press release, the potential investor in question is Swiss-based commodity investment firm Klesch Group, which at the end of October confirmed its interest in Lucchini’s Piombino mill. The Geneva-based investor is interested only in the Piombino-based steelworks and only in the case of a switchover from blast furnace (BF) to electric arc furnace (EAF) production. The other remaining Lucchini assets, namely, its Trieste-based blast furnace and the Lecco-based wire rod mill, will have to find another buyer. The current owner of Lucchini is Russian steelmaker Severstal and Severstal’s owner Alexei Mordashov. Lucchini’s debts to its creditor banks are estimated at €770 million.