Jindal Steel, Klesch Group among bidders for Italian steelmaker Lucchini

Jindal Steel and Klesch Group are among the nine parties bidding for the Italian steelmaker Lucchini, sources told Steel First.

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Indian steel major Jindal, which is headquartered in New Delhi, has put in a bid forward for the struggling Italian steel company, which has been up for sale since 2010.

The assets for sale include the 2.4 million tpy Piombino mill and blast furnace, alongside a rolling mill in Lecco and a service centre in Condove near Turin.

While Jindal declined to comment, JP Morgan analyst Alessandro Abate told Steel First at the end of last week that the Indian firm “should be the key contender to make a solid bid for Piombino rolling mill”.

However, he added, the company “would only be interested in the rolling mill as the blast furnace is a hard part of the deal to digest as, we believe, are the pig iron production facilities and coke battery at Servola”.

A second source said that global industrial commodities company Klesch Group has also made an offer for Lucchini, with a bid in the “low double digit million euro range”.

Klesch declined to comment on the tender for Lucchini, however, the group previously confirmed its interest in the potential acquisition of the steel producer in 2012.

According to the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, two out of nine non-binding bids made for the Italian company remained “incomplete” – an improvement on March 12, when the ministry said that eight out of nine offers had lacked the correct financial and industrial paperwork

The ministry was still not willing to supply details about the the bidders.

On March 11, speaking on behalf of his own company and fellow steelmaker Feralpi, Duferco ceo (and president of Italian steel association Assofermet), Antonio Gozzi told Steel First that Duferco and Feralpi would not be bidding for Lucchini.