Barcelona Commercial Court No. 2 renders its decision Reinstatement of ownership of the steel giant in favor of Celsa’s creditors and against the Rubiralta family. Thus, Celsa will cease to be one of the main Catalan family companies and the funds will control this group of industrial companies in Spain, which employs 10,000 people and bills 6,000 million euros per year.
The sentencing, announced this Monday, puts an end to a lengthy judicial battle between the Rubyraltas and some of their creditors, in which the Government has been involved in million-dollar bailout offers. The decision is final and there are no objections to it.. According to union sources, this Monday afternoon, workers were called to meetings at most headquarters to be briefed on the details and implementation of the penalty.
Judge Álvaro Lobato Lavín evaluated the restructuring plan offered by mutual funds, which currently have multiple funds. overdue debt of 2 billion euros.
The Rubiraltas also lost the keys to their factories, amid a pile of debt they took to keep a business that constantly required large investments to be profitable. “In a modern competitive economy, The market is and should be the sole arbiter of economic survival.“, the judge is ending his sentence, which was issued this Monday.
New bankruptcy law
The enactment of the new bankruptcy law gave the various mutual funds that lent Rubiraltas the opportunity to collect a large portion of that debt as company shares. Here are the new regulations If creditors owe more than the company’s value, they can collect this debt by entering the property.. Finally, they imposed their own narrative on top of that of Rubiralta, who predicted during the trial that the company would go bankrupt if it fell into their hands.
The judge assessed that the restructuring plan presented by Senior Vice President Global, Deutschebank, Sculptor and Anchorage complied with these legal requirements and kept Grupo Celsa afloat, something that both Rubiralta and the unions did not trust during the hearing. “It is not a sufficient explanation to accuse the creditors of forming a coalition of ‘opportunistic funds’, ‘vulture funds’, seeking a ‘financial step’ or asking for the ‘nationalization of Grupo Celsa’s shareholders’, the judge said.
The magistrate decides in favor of creditor funds, but at the same time reminds them that he approved Celsa’s entry into the shareholding in exchange for maintaining its strategic value in Spain, both in terms of employment and production. “They must strictly follow their commitments, protect and increase the value of the company.maintaining its integrity, protecting employment, and doing this without changing the strategic decision-making centers that are very relevant to the economy as a whole.”
Since the funds had already received advances at the time of the hearing, which took place from 3 to 11 July, they were looking for a manager As soon as the penalty is decided, a new board of directors will be appointed to replace Rubiraltas and the company will be managed.
Funds specifically requested were: Rathmines, Deutschebank, London Branch, International Kapitalanlagegesellschaft MBH, Attorney SDF 2, Cross Ocean USD ESS II, Sarl, Cross Ocean AGG II, Sarl, Sculptor Investments, Trinity Investments, Goldentree and BV and AIO VII.