The government prepares a plan B for Ilva. According to what was reported this morning by the newspaper La Repubblica, the executive could issue a decree in the next few days (or even in this evening's Council of Ministers) to impose extraordinary administration on the steel group. In essence, it would be a bankruptcy controlled by the Marzano law, reserved for large groups with more than 500 employees and over 300 million in debt.
In addition to the Commissioner, the State would aim to create a bad company in which to merge debts and legal disputes, to then intervene through a newco in which the Strategic Fund of Cassa depositi e presti, controlled by the Treasury, would enter. The aim is “to get that company back on track for two or three years, defend employment, protect the environment and then relaunch it on the market – explained the premier, Matteo Renzi -. Not everything that is public should be excluded: I am because steel is managed by private individuals. But if I have to blow up Taranto, I prefer to intervene directly for a few years and then put it back on the market".
In the eyes of the Executive, this is the only way forward, since the conditions in which the group finds itself do not allow for the possibility of reaching an agreement with a buyer. At the moment, both the Anglo-Indians of Arcelor Mittal and the Italian Arvedi are out of the game. In fact, Ilva has collected the 125 million of the second installment of the bank loan and can now only pay the December salaries, the thirteenth month and the installment of the production bonus. End of prospects. In the meantime, however, there are 350 million overdue debts with suppliers and 35 billion in requests for environmental damage. Finally, the group continues to lose 25 million euros a month.
According to the Minister of the Environment, Gian Luca Galletti, “the hypothesis of a bridging intervention by the State to put the company and the environment back on track and then relaunch it on the market is plausible. It is not a question of remaking Italsider, as some nostalgic for public steel would like, but only of intervening to restore serenity to a population marked by too much environmental damage and to ensure efficiency and competitiveness to a strategic company for the country. A timed operation, a short time and very productive because Taranto on the one hand and the steel market on the other cannot wait”.
