AHMSA explores partnership, debt issue

Mexico-based steelmaker Altos Hornos de México (AHMSA) is reportedly seeking a merger or partnership with Grupo Villacero, another steel company based in Mexico, to help it avoid bankruptcy.

An online report from Chile-based BNAmericas indicates AHMSA is pursuing the tie-up with Grupo Villacero, but an AHMSA spokesperson has declined to call it a buyout of the firm. The report indicates instead the two steel producers “are working with a number of possible third parties to evaluate financing and restructuring options” during a 90-day exploratory period.

AHMSA indicates it is continuing “normal operations” at its steel mills and iron ore and coal mining locations. AHMSA is an integrated steel producer with an integrated complex in Monclova, Mexico. Grupo Villacero, based in Monterrey, focuses on downstream steel processing and service center distribution activities.

Mexico’s government has at times frozen AHMSA’s bank accounts as it seeks some $200 million it claims it is owed from a prior judgment pertaining to the sale of an AHMSA fertilizer business unit to state-owned PEMEX.

According to a July 20 Fastmarkets AMM report, Mexico’s current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has indicated the government expects that debt to be paid whether or not AHMSA succeeds in reaching a new financing arrangement.