The Marseille commercial court was due on 8th December’20 to examine the two takeover bids submitted for the speciality alumina unit at Gardanne in Southern France. But one of the two bidders withdrew. The inter-union hopes to reduce the social impact of the remaining offer carried by United Mining Supply, an integrated logistics group specializing in industrial and mining activities.
There were two offers for the takeover of the Alteo Alumina in Gardanne. One, initiated by Xavier Perrier and Alain de Krassny (Kem One), aimed to preserve the integrity of the speciality alumina production plant, with bauxite extraction using the Bayer process. The other, defended by the United Mining Supply (UMS) group, favoured the abandonment of this extraction to perpetuate downstream.
However, the Marseille commercial court, which was to analyse them on 8th December, will not have to decide, as the first offer, called Alto, was withdrawn by its carriers during the hearing. The commercial justice will therefore deliver its opinion on 7th January 2021 on the only case that remains in the running, developed by the integrated logistics group in Guinea, West Africa, led by the Franco-Lebanese-Guinean Fadi Wazni. This project provides for the elimination of 98 jobs, a figure that employee representatives will tackle over the coming weeks to try to reduce.
According to Bruno Arnoux, Secretary of Social and Economic Committee, Alteo: “The future method could partially conserve it by leaving the site to process, in the form of ‘reprecipitation’, a raw powder that would be imported from Europe.”
The mayors of Gardanne, Hervé Granier, and Bouc-Bel-Air, Richard Maillé, had expressed their preference for this offer, arguing that the strength of the UMS file does not suffer from any possible comparison on the financial, industrial, environmental and in terms of supporting employees. UMS appears to us to be the most relevant and the safest solution.
In their eyes, the Alto case lacked financial guarantees. Xavier Perrier, the former manager of the factory regretted the absence of a response from the State to its request for a loan guarantee of €50 million, suggesting that the battles fought for several years against the red mud emitted by the site would have played against its ambition. By separating from the upstream side of the unit's activity, UMS would effectively get rid of the problem of solid residues previously decontaminated, stored on land adjacent to the unit, at Mange Garri. This storage is still the subject of numerous objections from residents, environmental associations and the mayor of Bouc-Bel-Air.
In the last seven years, the industrialist has invested €36 million to stop solid discharges at sea and purify its liquid effluents, including €6 million in a biological treatment plant, inaugurated in September 2020, to achieve these objectives.
Alteo employs 400 people in its factory and mobilizes as many subcontractors.
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