Court postpones decision on bankruptcy of Liberty Liege

The Belgian court has postponed the decision on the bankruptcy of Liberty Liege, a subsidiary of the British steel company Liberty Steel, until June 26, 2023. Belgian RTBF informs about it.

The decision has been delayed due to other ongoing lawsuits initiated by the Liberty group. The appeals, in particular, concern the appointment of an interim administrator and the rejection of the takeover bid submitted by Liberty Galati.

While the company’s bankruptcy is still a possibility, the Walloon region government continues to negotiate with Liberty Galati about a possible €20 million loan offer to preserve the assets. However, this solution has not yet been developed.

Liberty Steel’s Belgian assets in Liege include two hot dip galvanizing lines at Flemal and a packaging steel line at Tiller. The two enterprises are capable of producing up to 1 million tons of hot-dip galvanized coils and 200,000 tons of packaging steel products per year. Liberty Steel acquired these assets from ArcelorMittal in 2019. In December 2022, the Liege court appointed an interim administrator and legal representative for Liberty Liege to expedite the sale of the Flemalle and Tilleur factories.

As GMK Center reported earlier, at the end of April the Belgian court rejected all three bids for the acquisition of Liberty Steel’s Liege rolling mills. The offers, as previously reported, came from ArcelorMittal, the former owner of the assets prior to their sale to Liberty, from Marcegaglia in conjunction with NLMK Europe, and Liberty Galati, a subsidiary of Liberty Steel. Local unions expressed support for Liberty Galati’s bid as it was the only one to include both rolling mills and keep all jobs.

Liberty group criticized the court decision as wrong for the business and welfare of employees of enterprises, and in early May was exploring legal options for its cancellation.