Sidenor, the Basque steel company in Jose Antonio Jainaga, he’s shopping. The company of the also president of Aege, the employer’s association of large electrointensive consumers, is among the great suitors of the Alcoa plant in San Cibrao along with Alvance, the aluminum division of British conglomerate GFG Alliance, Trafigura Y Atlas Holding, which in Spain already owns Aludium plants. However, Sidenor’s appetite is broadening. In the last week, different publications indicate that the Basque firm is part of the consortium that negotiates with Rolls-Royce the purchase of its Spanish subsidiary ITP Aero.
The British company would be, according to Five days, finalizing the sale of the Spanish firm to a consortium led by Bain, in which the Spanish companies are also found Sener, Sidenor and JB Capital, Javier Botín’s bank. They would offer about 1,600 million euros. In a statement to the British supervisor, Rolls confirmed that he had established “Exclusive conversations” with a consortium led by the US venture capital manager Bain Capital.
The news of Sidenor’s participation in this consortium coincides in time for its commitment to the only active primary aluminum plant in Spain: that of Alcoa in San Cibrao.
In early June, the steelmaker turned the cards face up and announced that it had submitted a non-binding offer for the plant. Sidenor assured that his is a commitment to continuity: “A long-term involvement, away from any speculative approach and focused on the maintenance and development of the activity and, therefore, the job”.
I return to San Cibrao
However, in the last week, the process of negotiating the future of San Cibrao has turned upside down after Alcoa launched a new offer due to the refusal of the Government to triangulate the sale through SEPI. Now, the Americans propose to stay one more year in Cervo, during which time they will not undertake any cuts in personnel. However, the Government must respond to the high electricity bill of the plant, something that makes it “unviable”, according to its owners.
The offer is opposed by the staff, who believe that with four solvent buyers on the board, it is not acceptable to postpone the buying and selling process. The president of the works council, Jose Antonio Zan, warned last week that the buyers of the Cervo plant “are skeptical” with the sale process. “If right now the sale is paralyzed and it does not reopen until January 2023 in a way other than now, they would almost certainly give the scared“, he claimed.
Sidenor’s numbers
With assets worth more than 660 million euros, Sidenor invoiced the year of the coronavirus close to 493 million euros, compared to 696.6 the previous year, that is, the impact of the pandemic ate 29% of its turnover. The operating result, that of the group’s activity, was negative 36 million, compared to the 21 million earned in 2019. The net result was 39 million in the red, increasing the losses of 17 million of the year before the pandemic.
With headquarters in Basauri and production centers distributed in the Basque Country, Cantabria and Catalonia, the report that accompanies its balance indicates that the 53% of Sidenor’s sales are concentrated in the Spanish market, 44% in Europe and 3% in the rest of the world.
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