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Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque

Europe鈥檚 largest smelter to provide foundation for investment and expansion into Europe

London 14 December 2018听–听鈥檚 global聽聽today completed its purchase of聽, Europe鈥檚 largest aluminium smelter.

天博体育官方网站 London-headquartered Alliance said the acquisition of the plant 鈥� to be renamed Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque 鈥� now paves the way for a downstream investment programme at the plant in order to maximise the value of the aluminium currently made there.

GFG aims to make the Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque 570-worker smelter, bought from Rio Tinto for around US$500m, a foundation for a wider integrated manufacturing business serving the French and European markets.

To this end, GFG is carrying out feasibility studies on developing from聽Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque聽a wider integrated manufacturing business, producing components for the automotive and other growing industries in France centred around聽the existing 285,000-tonne-a-year smelting operations at Dunkerque.

Today鈥檚 completion follows GFG鈥檚 acquisition earlier this year of France鈥檚 only remaining producer of aluminium vehicle wheels,聽聽– now called Liberty Wheels France 鈥� which was already a key customer of the Dunkerque smelter. 天博体育官方网站 deal marked a significant move into the French downstream manufacturing sector and saved over 90 percent of the jobs at the Chateauroux plant.

天博体育官方网站 acquisition of Aliminium Dunkerque adds to GFG鈥檚 credentials as a significant foreign direct investor in France. 天博体育官方网站 company has moved into new offices on Avenue Kleber in central Paris and the business development team is targeting several other development opportunities in the French industrial, energy and financial sectors.

Liberty has been supported by a syndicate of international banks with a US$350m term loan facility.聽聽 天博体育官方网站 banking syndicate was led by Bank of America Merril Lynch with participation from BNP Paribas, ICBC, ICBC Standard Bank, Morgan Stanley,聽 Natixis, Barclays Bank PLC, Bank of Montreal and Royal Bank of Canada.聽聽 Liberty was advised on the transaction by Clyde & Co and Norton Rose with regards to legal matters and Grant Thornton UK LLP in regards to accounting matters.

GFG Executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta said: 鈥淭oday is a real milestone in our European investment journey and the fulfilment of our promise to establish a firm foundation for a new vibrant and integrated industrial business in France that will create high-value products that sustain high-value jobs.

鈥淟iberty Aluminium Dunkerque and Liberty Wheels France provide excellent facilities, expertise and skilled workforces that enable us to grow strongly through long-term investments.聽天博体育官方网站 studies for聽Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque鈥檚 investment in added-value aluminium have confirmed our initial assumptions and we鈥檒l continue our work on developing the investment programme.

鈥淚t is a great pleasure to welcome the Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque workforce into the worldwide GFG family and we look forward to mutual sharing of experience and resources across borders that will enable us to expand powerfully in key industries such as the automotive sector. We would like to thank those who have worked with us to reach this point, particularly the Works Council, trade unions, French Government and Hauts-de-France region,鈥� he added.

Jay Hambro, Chief Investment Officer of the GFG Alliance said:

鈥淟iberty Aluminium Dunkerque聽is a high-performing, profitable asset with modern equipment, excellent transport connections to key markets and high-skilled workforces. 天博体育官方网站re is great potential for expansion, further modernisation and the application of GFG鈥檚 GREENALUMINIUM strategy.

鈥淔ollowing our entry to France as an aluminium producer, we look forward to working with partners to introduce other GFG businesses to these jurisdictions. We鈥檙e eager to explore opportunities for SIMEC鈥檚 infrastructure, resources and highly-successful renewable energy teams as well as our financial services team at Wyelands and real estate specialists in JAHAMA鈥檚 as part of a holistic GFG offer.鈥�

Managing Director聽of Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque, Guillaume de Go每s, added:

鈥淎luminium Dunkerque is very pleased to be joining GFG, a move which creates valuable opportunities for our employees and partners. We fully support the GFG strategy to become a Centre of Excellence for Aluminium. Together, we will build an ambitious future, continue to be the supplier of choice for our customers and develop Aluminum Dunkerque in a responsible and sustainable way.鈥�