This is a new blow for the 281 employees of the steel plant Ascoval of Saint-Saulve in the North. The group Alitfort, which proposed to take over the business, was recognized on Thursday not to have received "external funding" necessary to the operation.

Contrary to what had been promised at the time of the announcement last December, Altifort has not been able to gather the funding (€10 million in equity and $ 25 million of funding bonds) that he had been able to make. "The assignment can no longer be involved", confirmed this morning in Figaro Guilhem Bremond, who advises Ascoval.

"Altifort has deceived the whole world"

Bercy (AFP)

"Altifort has confirmed to us that he could not pay any of the funds on which it was committed", told AFP the entourage of the minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire. "Even ten million of their own funds, they are not able to give. (...) It has taken note of this. In the present case, Altifort has deceived the whole world".

"We are disappointed! We were promised mountains and marvels (...) and in the end we will have nothing. This is even more the anger, the spite. Altifort we did it backwards, in reality there is nothing, nothing concrete," dropped in front of the factory, Vincent, aged 51, a maintenance agent. "I don't know what is going to become now," he added. Stanislas, 60 years old, feels he "betrayed": "we have planted a knife in the back, we'll never have the time to find another buyer...". "Take over a factory and run at the end of three weeks it is unthinkable", said also David, 43 years of age.

"Altifort, it is a good speaker he was able to fall asleep in his world". "I would like to understand how a folder supported by three firms of different experts to be able to validate a plan with funds that would not be present", is interviewed with AFP Bruno Kopczynski, spokesperson of the coordination of association and elected CFDT.

"The decision we've made with all the employees, it is working to a new recovery by actively marketing itu membership to all the manufacturers who might be interested," says Bercy. "We'll remake a point in the beginning of next week in the same format, with the employees, the mps, the president of the region, Xavier Bertrand, to see where we are." But hope is more than lean, since the assignment to Altifort was already a plan of the last chance. No public funding - the State and the region had planned to support massively the plan has not yet been unlocked. For its part, Altifort said to explore "all the alternatives" by the hearing on February 27. It would be a "miracle", according to the lawyer of Ascoval.