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The three commissionerates for the extraordinary administrations of Acciaierie d’Italia and Ilva have been completed by the Minister of Business, Adolfo Urso. In the first, Giancarlo Quaranta, whom the minister Adolfo Urso had appointed in recent days, is joined by Giovanni Fiori, an expert in corporate governance and internal auditing, and Davide Tabarelli, president of Ne Nomisma Energia and expert in environmental issues. In Ilva under extraordinary administration, however, commissioner Alessandro Danovi, an expert in corporate recovery, insolvency management and extraordinary operations, remains, and Francesco di Ciommo, an expert in banking and financial law, business, administrative and corporate crises, enters. , and Daniela Savi, expert in corporate crisis management and tax matters. Di Ciommo and Savi take the place of Francesco Ardito and Antonio Lupo who resigned and were appointed in the spring of 2018 by the then Minister of Economic Development, Luigi Di Maio, taking over from the Gnudi, Laghi and Carrubba group that he had managed the tender for the sale of Ilva’s assets, which in June 2017 went to ArcelorMittal Italia, which in April 2021 will become Acciaierie d’Italia with the entry of the public company Invitalia.
Ilva’s extraordinary administration has existed since January 2015 and has ownership of the plants and factories, including those in Taranto, Genoa, Novi Ligure and Racconigi. The extraordinary administration of Acciaierie, however, has only existed for a few days and on 29 February it became official with the recognition of the state of insolvency by the Court of Milan. Unlike Ilva in as, Acciaierie in as does not have any assets in its ownership, so much so that in the legislative decree approved on 29 February by the Industry Commission of the Senate it was foreseen that insolvent companies that present “concrete prospects” can go into extraordinary administration. of recovery of the economic balance of entrepreneurial activities”, but, in addition to the availability of business complexes, to be sold at a later time to obtain the resources with which to pay creditors, contracts and rights are also permitted, “even of a mandatory nature, concerning, in whole or in part, the same business complexes”. A case that applies to Acciaierie, which has no assets of its own but only the rental contract with Ilva under extraordinary administration. The two extraordinary administrations, as requested by Minister Urso, will now have to collaborate with each other.
A first issue that will arise for the extraordinary administration of Acciaierie is to ask that of Ilva for an extension of the rental contract. According to the March 2020 agreement, Acciaierie was supposed to acquire the industrial assets from Ilva by the end of May 2022, but this date was missed as the release of the plants from seizure was requested from the Judiciary as a preliminary condition, but from the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of Assise received a double no as the environmental compliance plan had not yet been completed. The transfer was therefore postponed by two years: May 2024. Now the environmental plan, according to Acciaierie’s assurances, was completed in August 2023 and then rules were introduced, within the “Save Infractions” decree, which provide for the possibility of acquiring the assets and continuing production even in the presence of seizure (in Taranto the plants are seized with the right to use them for environmental crimes) and confirmation of the confiscation in the Court of Cassation (it has currently been established in the first degree trial in the Court of Assizes). Except that, despite the reference framework having changed, at the end of May there will be no purchase of the assets by Acciaierie d’Italia both because the company is in extraordinary administration and because before returning to the market, the company will need to be reorganised. and intervene on the widespread critical issues, including plant-related, that it presents.
The appointment of the other two commissioners in Steelworks is positively evaluated by the unions. Rocco Palombella of Uilm declares: “Now Quaranta is not alone. The commissioners are full and can set off on an epochal challenge: managing to restore the former Ilva to a normal condition, safeguarding jobs and launching a decarbonisation plan. The Government must give its support so that the commissioners have the financial leverage and more, to be able to save Ilva”. Loris Scarpa of Fiom Cgil adds: “The team is complete and we can go into the merits of the issues. An agreement must be reached for the restart to make the plants and workers safe and create the appropriate environmental conditions to relaunch production. We need to act quickly, we need to restore liquidity to the company, otherwise the plants will risk stopping.”