Bro, sit down 'cause I'm about to tell you the saddest economic news of the summer! The Liberty Galați Steel Plant - yeah, that steel mill with a billion euros in debt - put its assets up for sale again, this time with a starting price of 463 million euros, and guess what? Nobody showed up! It's the second time the auction has failed, bro. First time it was 709 million, now they lowered the price, but still nothing. It's like when I try to sell my 2008 BMW on OLX: you praise it, you praise it, but when it comes to cold hard cash, everyone disappears.
Now listen up: five big companies checked out the tender documents - UMB Steel (those Umbrărescu guys who recently bought ArcelorMittal Hunedoara), Metinvest B.V. (controlled by Rinat Akhmetov, a money man from Ukraine, Italy, Bulgaria, USA), Jindal Steel (the Indians, with global operations), Sidenor Steel Industry (the Greeks, steel parts manufacturers), and JSW Steel Limited (the Indians from Mumbai). They all showed interest, but none of them put up that 7% guarantee, about 32 million euros. Me, if someone told me to put up 32 million as a guarantee, I'd think twice - but I don't have 32 million even in my wet dreams, bro!
And now, what's next? According to the administrators from Euro Insol and CITR, the process of finding a strategic partner continues through direct dialogue with interested investors. Basically, they call those guys and say: "Come on, lower the price a bit, this can't go on." Meanwhile, Remus Borza, the head of Euro Insol, said in May that if it doesn't sell now, the Romanian state must step in. And there's actually an emergency ordinance from April that allows AAAS (the State Assets Administration Authority) to take over the claims from ANAF and set up an SPV-type company. In plain English, the state takes over the plant in lieu of debts and looks for someone else to pump in money. It's like when neighbor Gheorghe can't pay his bank installments and the bailiff comes to take his car - but on a massive scale, with billions.
Borza also said: "We can't wait any longer, because the assets can't be kept in conservation for so long, and in the meantime all the good people will leave." What can I say, bro? Same thing happens in our neighborhood in Berceni: if you don't invest in the apartment, it deteriorates and the tenants leave. For now, I'm off to explain to Mioara why we don't have money for a vacation in Greece this year - 'cause we also have debts, but at least they're not a billion!
