Former Ilva, candidates rise to four: Czech firm CE Industries joins the race

The suitors for former Ilva have grown to four. On August 25, from the stage of the Rimini Meeting, the Minister of Enterprises and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso announced the arrival of a new European competitor without naming it: “A fourth European party has entered the race,” the minister said according to ANSA. It is CE Industries, an industrial holding company based in Prague founded by Jaroslav Strnad, which has filed a statement of interest with the extraordinary administrators of Ilva and Acciaierie d’Italia, as reported by Il Sole 24 Ore.

The newspaper covered the progress of this dispute on August 17 and again on August 21, when the consortium led by Federacciai had requested a new tender for the cold area alone.

The profile of the new candidate deserves attention for what it does not contain. CE Industries controls more than twenty companies, with about three thousand employees, and is active in rail logistics, energy, mechanics, recycling and defense: it does not produce steel (Il Sole 24 Ore; La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno). This is a fact the administrators will have to weigh when comparing the offers, because it distinguishes the newcomer from the other parties in play: alongside CE Industries, still in the race are the Indian company Jindal, the US fund Flacks Group, and the Italian consortium coordinated by Federacciai, according to Quotidiano di Puglia.

The day’s second development concerns the national consortium itself, which in recent days has seen Eusider join and has gained access to the data room, that is, to confidential documentation on the plants and accounts (Il Sole 24 Ore; ANSA). The group’s stated goal remains only the cold area of Taranto: a perimeter that leaves open the question of who will take charge of the upstream part of the production cycle.

On the political front, Urso confirmed that a meeting on Ilva will be held at Palazzo Chigi in September, coordinated by Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano (Quotidiano di Puglia; La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno). The timeline remains unchanged: the suspension of the hot area by the end of October still stands.

It must be stated clearly what the available material does not say. A statement of interest is not a binding offer, and neither the amount nor the industrial scope proposed by CE Industries is currently public. It is not known whether the Czech holding company is looking at the entire complex or only part of it, nor what assessment the administrators have made of the four candidacies.

On the administrators’ table there are therefore four candidacies, only one of which — the Italian one — has so far obtained access to the confidential documentation; the Palazzo Chigi meeting announced for September has not yet been convened.