The hearing for the urgent appeal filed by the extraordinary commissioners of the Taranto-based former Ilva steel plant to prevent ArcelorMittal exiting its takeover of the facilities has been postponed to next March 6 by the Court of Milan. Judge Claudio Marangoni made the decision after receiving a request from the parties' lawyers on the assumption that an agreement will be reached by the end of February.
The decision to request a postponement to enable an agreement to be reached by February 28 had been anticipated by ArcelorMittal's lawyers before the start of the hearing.
"There are the bases to reach an agreement," said Roberto Bonsignore, lawyer for ArcelorMittal, with the managing director of ArcelorMittal Italia, Lucia Morselli, at his side. For now, "Mittal remains in Taranto, maintaining production,” he added. In the event of a successful outcome of the negotiations between ArcelorMittal, Ilva in extraordinary administrations and the Italian government, ArcelorMittal will withdraw the summons with which it requested confirmation of its withdrawal from the purchase contract, while the Ilva commissioners would withdraw their urgent precautionary appeal against the group's exit. The pending lawsuit would thus be cancelled. If no agreement is reached, however, there will be no further extension and the hearing will take place on March 6.