Sunningwell Steel Polska’s bid to acquire Huta Częstochowa, Poland’s largest heavy steel plate producer, was selected by the local District Court on July 28 as the only legitimate offer submitted in full by the designated submission date.
Sunningwell has been operating the electric arc furnace steelworks under a one-year lease agreement granted by the Official Receiver since September 19, 2019, with the Right of First Refusal on any acquisition thereafter.
By exercising their Right of First Refusal, Sunningwell declined participation in the first-round tender along with all other potential bidders, which saw the District Court list the company for sale at PLN250mn ($67mn).
The Częstochowa District Court then made a decision to reduce the list price by PLN30mn to PLN220mn and set a second tender submission date of July 27, for which Sunningwell was the only company to lodge its bid and pay the bond on time.
Established in the 19th century, Huta Częstochowa was formerly owned by Ukrainian operator Industrialny Soyuz Donbassa (ISD) who had overseen its demise and entered the company into bankruptcy on September 4, 2019.
Huta Częstochowa is equipped with an electric arc furnace (EAF) with yearly capacity of 800,000mt and continuous casting lines which are connected to a 1.2mn mt per heavy plate rolling mill and is integrated with its own scrap processing yard.
Sunningwell Steel Polska, which is a holding company for Polish investment firm Sunningwell International, also owns two and leases one steel production facilities across Romania, which include two EAFs that can produce 0.5mnt mt and 0.85mn mt per year respectively.
($1 = PLN3.76)