ArcelorMittal’s steel plant in Point Lisas will be put up for sale as soon as the paperwork required to start the process is already in the advanced stages, liquidator Christopher Kelshall has said.
So far the Goodwood Park house where ArcelorMittal’s chairman and chief executive officer Lakshmi Mittal lived when he was in this country along with two other executive residential houses owned by the company and a corporate box at the Queen’s Park Oval have already been put up for sale to the general public.
Apart from the sale of assets, Kelshall said he was also in the process of trying to determine the company’s “bona fide creditors.” The steel company also has approximately 200 outstanding legal matters before the courts, he said.
In March, ArcelorMittal closed its Point Lisas plant and sent home all of its workers. ArcelorMittal determined that its liabilities are valued at US$280 million while its assets are valued at US$70 million, Kelshall said.
“That is a number prepared by them, it is not my number I have to go through to determine my own number and of course the proving of the creditors is critical in that so I can’t give you a number until that exercise is more or less completed,” said Kelshall.
Kelshall said the liquidation of ArcelorMittal is “a little unusual” because of its size and the fact that it is part of a specialised industry. “Broadly, my strategy is to preserve the plant intact so that any buyer or investor can restart it with minimum effort and this entails maintaining the plant and so on. So I am holding the plant intact for any prospective investor that comes along and at the same time I am going to sell all the inventory, consumables and any other non-essential items to start turning those into cash without affecting the plant in any way,” he said
Kelshall said he has already begun selling items not related to the plant including stocks of finished products. A “small fleet” of cars owned by the company will also be put up for sale soon. “The other thing is that the paperwork is being prepared to offer the plant for sale, now it is a technical plant and therefore it is quite a job to put the paperwork together.
In the business we refer to the bunch of paperwork as an Information Memorandum which describes the plant, what it can do, what are its technical components and so on so that you can present that to a prospective buyer and say ‘this is what I have to sell. Are you interested?’ So that activity is going on right now,” Kelshall said.
Kelshall said completion of the Information Memorandum is an “exacting exercise” and that although he would not be able to put a specific timeframe as to when the plant will be put up for sale, the process is in the advanced stages. There has been keen interest in the three houses put up for sale with a long list of people already going to see the properties, he said.
The three company-owned residential houses are located throughout the country at Goodwood Park, Valsayn and Couva. The sale of the three houses will be done via sealed bids and potential bidders have the entire month of June to inspect the houses. Inspections will be done via appointment only.
The first “majestic” house up for sale is located at #144 Rainbow Ridge Road in Goodwood Park. This is the house where Mittal lived. “This prestigious property in the prime gated community of Goodwood Park enjoys an unobstructed breathtaking view of the Gulf of Paria, Port-of-Spain and Diego Martin Valley,” according to the property’s description.
The “majestic house” of 7,818 sq ft (square feet) is situated on 38,528 sq ft of land. It is a fully furnished house consisting of two main floors, a basement and a swimming pool.
The house is located on leasehold land with 152 years left on the lease.
The second house up for sale is located at 1A-2, Igneri Road at Valsayn Park South. “This secluded property of 6,650 sq ft is situated on two lots measuring 39,740 sq ft of flat land in the well-established residential community of Valsayn Park South,” according to the description.
“The furnished residence consists of three floors,” it stated. The tenure is freehold. The third house up for sale is located at 1 Jose Antonio Circular, Central Park, in Couva. “This two story residence of 3,130 sq ft is situated on 7,030 sq ft of land in Central Park, Couva,” the description stated.
The tenure is leasehold for 999 years which commenced from May 2, 1983. The deadline date for bids on the houses is July 1. Kelshall said the process of determining ArcelorMittal’s debt is ongoing. “Even if I sell the plant tomorrow, I will have to wait until the legal matters are resolved before we can bring closure so I am anxious to get the legal matters sorted,” Kelshall said. —Joel Julien