The companies that bid for the A Grela aluminera begin the technical examination of the plant. Liberty House, Aludium and Cunext are the best positioned
The Alcoa plant in A Coruña received on Monday the first technical visit of one of the candidates to buy the factory. This fact places the sales process at a second level, given that up until now it had not gone beyond the collection of information and the exchange of offers.
The workers requested to meet with those interested in acquiring the aluminera, a request that has not been rejected by the American multinational, although they must wait until the process is more advanced.
Three proper names figure at the top of the list of applicants: Liberty House Group, Aludium and Cunext. Only the first one is an investment fund. It is headquartered in London and has acquired industrial plants in Europe for several months. Among them the largest aluminera of the continent: Rio Tinto, Dunkirk (France).
Aludium is the industrial group that brings together the three factories that the Atlas Holding fund bought from Alcoa in 2015: those of Amorebieta and Alicante and the French company of Castelsarrasin. All are aluminum transformers. A year later, in 2016, the company became interested in the block purchase of San Cibrao, A Coruña and Alicante; a process that went hand in hand with Grupo Alibérico and that did not come to fruition.
Cunext is a Spanish business group dedicated since its inception to the transformation of copper and that has been introduced into the world of aluminum. It has bases in Córdoba (where the group originates from), Madrid, Barcelona and Vitoria. It also had a small factory in Lugones (Siero), which closed last December. Replaced the majority of the staff.
In addition to the aforementioned candidates, the interest of the Quantum and Sherpa funds and the Cunext and BCT industrial groups has also spread.
Several of the projects of the companies interested in buying the factories of Alcoa in A Coruña and Avilés breach the conditions of the agreement signed in January by the American multinational and the workers. Sources close to the aluminera company point out that some applicants do not commit to the total subrogation of the staff (in both plants or separately) or do not present a long-term industrial viability plan or fail to comply with both conditions.
In addition to the breaches, some of the applicants have indicated that the price of energy in Spain and the uncertainty about the Statute of the Electrointensive Industry play against the sale. Precisely this has been the main argument of Alcoa to justify the closure.
The American multinational denies trying to breach the agreements reached on the sale. In this sense, Alcoa affirms that they have always been willing and open «to assess solid and viable offers of the parties within the framework of the pact» sealed with the employees. The workers insist that the company must put a reasonable price on sale, something that Alcoa claims to be doing. The firm says not only will not earn money in this process, but estimates that getting rid of the factories of A Coruña and Avilés will cost between 70 and 125 million dollars.
MAIN SCHOOL
The multinational and its employees agree that the price of electricity for large companies in Spain is «the main stumbling block» to sell. In fact, the Alcoa works council together with the main Galician large consumer companies have called a mobilization on May 20 in Santiago to demand a competitive electricity tariff.
Although the workers claim not to have a preference over a hypothetical buyer, since they lack the necessary data to evaluate them, they do have some fear that Alcoa will fall into the hands of an investment fund. In this sense, the one that has most positioned itself publicly is the chairman of the Alcoa works council in Avilés, José Manuel Gómez de la Uz. «We like more the names that sound to metal sector and to company», aims Gómez de la Uz.
