ROME (Reuters) -Italy will begin exclusive talks with an Azeri consortium about the sale of Italian steel company Acciaierie d’Italia (ADI), formerly known as Ilva, Industry Minister Adolfo Urso and ADI said on Thursday.
ADI said in a statement that the consortium investors interested in taking it over are Baku Steel and Azerbaijan Investment Company OJSC, part of the Azerbaijan Business Development Fund.
The company, which is under state administration after struggling to maintain production amid rising energy costs and weak demand, is a major headache for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni because its closure would have major knock-on effects for the country’s manufacturing sector.
“The commissioners (running the company) have pre-announced to me that they will send a formal request today to be authorized to negotiate with the Azeri consortium that made the best proposal,” Urso told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Bologna, northern Italy, earlier in the day.
ADI’s commissioners took into account several factors in the selection process, including the applicants’ financial viability, the industrial sustainability of their proposals, and the projected benefits for employment and local communities, the statement said.
In February, both Baku Steel and the Indian company Jindal Steel International raised their preliminary bids for ADI.
The government took charge of ADI’s factories in Italy last year under a special administration procedure, ending weeks of clashes with its then top shareholder ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest steelmaker.
(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Francesca Piscioneri, editing by Gavin Jones, Tomasz Janowski, Gianluca Semeraro and Jan Harvey)
