Industry Minister Federica Guidi
on Monday signed a decree putting up for sale companies and
plants in the troubled ILVA steel group. The tender for
expressions of interest will be published Tuesday, sources said.
Earlier this month the cabinet extended an environmental
cleanup deadline for ILVA in order to make time for a sale of
its facilities.
Cabinet also earmarked 300 million euros to facilitate the
sale, which is to be completed by June 30 this year.
The buyer will be picked via "a public invitation to
tender, assessed based on the merits of its proposal...and
following transparency criteria," Guidi told reporters after the
cabinet meeting.
Italy in March passed a so-called save-ILVA decree
allowing the cash-strapped steel manufacturer to get 400 million
euros in State-backed loans from the national government's Cassa
Depositi e Prestiti (CDP).
The cabinet also approved a 260-million euro bridge loan.
Extraordinary commissioners are now managing ILVA as the
troubled firm goes through a massive environmental cleanup and
financial turnaround project.
The government has extended the cleanup deadline from
August 4 to December 31 this year to make time for the tender.
"A new corporate set-up will allow for a stable, definitive
future with an industrial outlook...for ILVA," Cabinet Secretary
Claudio De Vincenti said.
A court in January this year declared ILVA insolvent, with
debt totaling nearly three billion euros.
ILVA has employed some 20,000 people and been blamed for
decades of environmental degradation and high levels of cancer
at its plant in the southern city of Taranto.
In July, 44 people were indicted on charges of
"environmental disaster" at the ILVA Taranto steel works.
Members of the Riva family that formerly owned the ILVA
steelworks are also among those set to stand trial, along with
politicians and current and former administrative officials.
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