Arvedi and Jindal submit two bids for ex Ilva as Federacciai and Flacks stay out

Two bids after the deadline

Two offers reached the commissioners of Acciaierie d'Italia by midnight on Sunday, 8 November, the deadline for binding bids on the ex Ilva assets. They came from India's Jindal Steel International and from Arvedi, the steel group based in Cremona. The tender was launched in July 2024, after minister Adolfo Urso ordered the extraordinary administration of Acciaierie d'Italia. The deadline had already been moved from 15 October to 8 November to give more time to companies that had accessed the dataroom. Both offers have been passed to Project Sider, the advisor to the commissioners, and will be reviewed under the procedure used in earlier rounds.

Bidders that dropped out

The Federacciai consortium of Italian steelmakers did not submit a bid, and it had been moving further away from turning its August expression of interest into a proposal. Flacks Group, the US private equity fund, also withdrew, with sources close to the fund telling ANSA it could only update its offer after meeting Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a meeting that had not yet taken place. Il Fatto Quotidiano reports that the Flacks family office, led by Michael Flacks, also did not confirm its commitment after due diligence. The Czech company Ce Industries stepped aside as well, having gained dataroom access without ever formalising its participation.

Plant shutdown and jobs

The hot area of the Taranto plant is now definitively shut down. Its furnaces stayed on pre-heating for some days before stopping, following a Court of Cassation ruling that confirmed the decree of the Milan Court of Appeal. The company has requested extraordinary wage supplementation (cassa integrazione straordinaria) for up to 8,622 workers, according to ANSA, up from a current figure of 4,450. Il Sole 24 ORE gives a different count of 9,600 workers, 8,600 of them in Taranto, out of just under ten thousand direct employees. Talks at the labour ministry ended without agreement and were adjourned to 10 November. Fim, Fiom and Uilm say an agreement remains distant without a future for work to resume.

What the two bids propose

Arvedi is bidding for the Acciaierie d'Italia assets for the first time, after taking part in the first tender of 2016-2017 within the Acciaitalia consortium with Jindal and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. According to a plan reported by Il Fatto Quotidiano, Arvedi would start with no more than 3,000 workers doing rolling only, then build an electric furnace and double the plants to reach 5,000 employees. State support through Invitalia or other agencies is possible, and the costs would be at least 3 billion euros. Jindal has essentially repeated its earlier expression of interest, offering 3,000 workers, one electric furnace and slabs mostly imported from Oman. Both groups aim to restore steel production at Taranto with electric furnaces rather than the blast furnaces that were shut down. The Arvedi group, which has about 6,400 employees and produces over 5 million tonnes of steel a year, reported 2025 revenue of 5.5 billion euros and a net profit of 57.8 million euros.

Arvedi (first phase, no more than)3,000

Jindal3,000

Arvedi (first phase, no more than)

3000 workers

Jindal

3000 workers

Data from the article text