British group, Liberty Engineering, owned by industrialist Sanjeev Gupta has won its bid to take over AR Industries (ARI), the only French manufacturer of aluminium wheels, in a court ruling. In March, GFG Alliance, led by Liberty Group, submitted the bid to the court administrators for AR Industries at Chateauroux in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France.
GFG Executive Chairman Sanjeev Gupta said: “This is a very positive result not just for our business but first and foremost for the workforce at ARI. We’ve been very clear that France is one of the world’s great industrial economies and a key market for us. ARI is a perfect fit for our business and our investment strategy for France. We want to create the kind of sustainable, vertically integrated structure in France that we’ve successfully established in other markets – a structure based on adding value and safeguarding skilled jobs.”
The UK group is also buying Aluminium Dunkerque, Europe’s largest aluminium smelter from Rio Tinto. The smelter is already a major supplier of raw material to ARI.
Chief Executive of Liberty Industries Group Douglas Dawson commented:“This is a great outcome and a very important acquisition for Liberty. It represents a key step in our growing and continuing plans to be a vertically integrated global, relevant and strategic Tier 1 supplier to the engineering and auto sectors.”
Liberty’s Head of Business Development in France and Europe Philippe Baudon, said: “We are delighted with the court’s decision. Their ruling will allow us to retain over 90 percent of the jobs at the site and safeguard the plant’s role in the French automotive supply chain. It also means the valued expertise and know-how, developed by ARI’s workers can be retained and fostered – we want to see the plant taking its rightful place as a centre of excellence not only for the GFG Alliance but for the automotive sector in general.”
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