The federal judge who is handling the second attempt at financial restructuring with creditors of the steel company Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) declared the company bankrupt, thereby initiating the formal process for the sale of the company free of liabilities to the highest interested bidder, the federal judge declared on Wednesday, November 6, whose resolution was made public today, Thursday.
The steel giant with a production capacity of 5.5 million metric tons (mt) stopped its operations in January 2023 due to insolvency. According to public data at the end of 2022, reviewed by SteelOrbis, the company recorded assets of $2.0 billion and total liabilities in the financial balance sheet of $2.8 billion. However, during the period of productive paralysis due to insolvency, other liabilities arose (pending payment to the state oil company Pemex and tax debts) that raised liabilities to $5.95 billion.
With the state of bankruptcy, the sale of the company will be free of all liabilities. An attempt will be made to sell the steel company as a package with steel production and iron ore production in its own mines. The Judicial Branch will allocate the monetary resources from the sale to pay creditors. Therefore, the judge ordered that the sale should be "seeking to obtain the highest possible product for its sale, in order to pay creditors”.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, published that among those interested in analyzing AHMSA's assets for a potential acquisition were Ternium, ArcelorMittal, a Brazilian steel company, a Canadian company, and the Mexican Villacero. This is according to sources of information consulted.