Statement re Acciaierie d’Italia being placed into extraordinary administration

2024-02-20

Feb. 20, 2024 - Earlier today the Italian Government announced that it has placed Acciaierie d’Italia SpA (‘ADI’) into extraordinary administration subsequent to the request of Invitalia, thereby passing control of the company from its current shareholders, ArcelorMittal and Invitalia, to government appointed commissioners.

This ends ArcelorMittal’s involvement in ADI, which started in 2018. Since that time, ArcelorMittal has been fully committed to the people and assets of ADI - then known as Ilva - investing over €2 billion. This very significant investment enabled ADI to complete an extensive €800 million environmental programme on time that ensured compliance with the Integrated Environmental Authorisation set out by the Italian government, as well as invest €1.2 billion in upgrading equipment at all sites. ADI also benefited from hundreds of millions of euros of credit through the provision of raw materials by ArcelorMittal.

ArcelorMittal had been keen to address the significant discrepancy in capital investment into ADI by the two shareholders. In recent discussions ArcelorMittal put forward pragmatic proposals to address this while continuing the public-private partnership with Invitalia that was established in April 2021. When we were not able to agree on acceptable terms, we also offered to sell our shareholding in ADI to Invitalia. The discussions, despite ArcelorMittal’s best efforts, were not successful.

Had ADI been able after April 2021 to access traditional debt financing and been able to raise the working capital required to fund its ongoing needs, rather than relying on equity injections from its shareholders as its sole source of capital, this situation could have been avoided. Unfortunately, the conditions precedent to allow ADI to convert its lease of the assets into a formal purchase – conditions that ADI has no control over, were originally set to be completed before May 2022, and subsequently extended to May 2024 - remain unmet today. ADI’s financial situation has been further impacted by the Italian Government delivering less than one-third of the €2 billion of support measures it offered to at the time the public-private partnership with Invitalia was established.

An already complicated turnaround was made even more challenging by the instability caused by the temporary removal of criminal immunity applicable during the implementation period of the environmental investment programme, the demand environment during the Covid crisis and the energy crisis in Europe last year.

For the people and communities of ADI, ArcelorMittal hopes that a future can be secured that will bring much needed stability.