London-based Liberty House Group confirmed that it will today, January 19, make an unconditional and comprehensive offer to acquire the French assets of Belgium-headquartered specialty steel producer Asco Industries and Ascoval, securing the jobs of close to 1,600 employees at six operations across France, as well as many supplier jobs.
Liberty’s offer to acquire the Asco Industries and Ascoval businesses will be formally presented to the court on January 24, with a decision expected soon afterwards. The offer covers all locations in the Asco group; at Saint Saulve, Fos-sur-Mer, Les Dunes, Hagondange, Marais and Custine and secures almost 1 million mt of steelmaking capacity in France.
Liberty plans to invest more than €300 million over five years to stabilize and grow the business including capital investment of €100 million to upgrade the sites and expand output.
Each of the sites in the new combined business serves a separate and specific industrial sector, resulting in a more focused and balanced approach to the market. Hagondange will focus on manufacturing steel products for the automotive sector, Les Dunes will serve the oil and gas sector and Fos-sur-Mer will produce a range of bearings for industrial uses. This will complement the sites in the UK that service the aerospace and mechanical engineering sectors.
Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of GFG Alliance which is the parent company of Liberty House Group, said, "The market synergies between Asco Industries and our existing specialty steels business are compelling and we know that, by working together and complementing each other in the market, both businesses will grow and prosper.”