The Taranto Prosecutor’s Office rejects the release from seizure of the former Ilva plants, now Acciaierie d’Italia. That of the Prosecutor’s Office is an opinion expressed to the Court of Assizes to which the lawyers of Ilva in As (the company that owns the plants that Acciaierie d’Italia manages in rent) made a request at the end of March. That the prosecutors could express themselves negatively was actually already in the air. Now it will be necessary to see what the Court will decide in the near future.
Environment sold off
In May a year ago, the Court ordered the confiscation of the plants at the request of the public prosecutor, with the sentence of the “Ambiente Svenduto” trial relating to the serious environmental crimes contested by the Riva management. Confiscation which, however, will only take place if confirmed by the Court of Cassation judgment. In the face of the Prosecutor’s no to release from seizure, no legal move, for the moment, by Ilva in As. The latter will necessarily have to wait for the verdict of the Court of Assizes. If it too should reject the release from seizure, the lawyers will then be able to play the card of the appeal to the Review Court. And then point to the Supreme Court if the Review should turn on the red light. Ilva’s choice to ask for release from seizure had two reasons: to try to prepare the way for the reorganization of the Acciaierie d’Italia company by the end of May, as required by the December 2020 contract, and to leverage on the fact that 90 per cent of the environmental requirements has now been fulfilled and that the factory is no longer that of July 2012, when the seizure was triggered by order of the then investigating judge Patrizia Todisco who initially had no right of use.
The changed environmental picture
“Today the environmental and management framework of the steel mill has changed overall” and therefore “the conditions for a concrete and current danger prognosis, suitable to justify the maintenance of the precautionary bond”: thus the lawyers of Ilva in As, Filippo Dinacci and Angelo Loreto, had written in the request for release from seizure presented at the end of March. The prosecutor, however, was of a different opinion. From a production point of view, nothing changes. The iron and steel industry can continue to work (the company reiterated that in 2022 it is aiming for 5.7 million tons) and the plants, while remaining seized, retain the right of use for the operator.
The consequences on the reorganization
It changes a lot, however, for the reorganization of Acciaierie d’Italia. In the sense that since there has been no release from seizure, both the passage of the State, with Invitalia, to 60 per cent of the capital (now 38 per cent), and the purchase of the Ilva company branches from the extraordinary administration. And it is precisely by foreseeing this unfavorable scenario, that for some weeks Ilva in extraordinary administration, ArcelorMittal and Invitalia (respectively private and public shareholder of Acciaierie d’Italia) are working to reformulate the end of 2020 contract and lengthen its implementation times. .
Negotiations in progress
This is a negotiation that the parties must close by the end of the month (there was a new meeting yesterday) and which is encountering difficulties. In fact, Mittal asked for a “discount” of 200 million on the purchase price of the company, set at 1.8 billion, and a further reduction of 25 percent in the rent, which had already been cut by 50 percent in March. 2020 with the obligation to pay the unpaid part at the time of purchase. By virtue of this reduction, the rent went from 180 to 90 million per year. And the quarterly installment has dropped to 22 million and 250 thousand euros. But in addition to the corporate reorganization that is becoming more complicated, there are also new fibrillations in the related industries.