AHMSA opens doors to potential buyers as $1.3B asset auction nears

The company’s assets have been valued at more than $1.3 billion, according to a Vanguardia report.

Debts to workers, creditors, and state agencies exceed $1.6 billion.

Vanguardia confirmed that at least five parties have already expressed interest in buying the assets of the miner and flat-rolled steelmaker.

Among the names already tied to the process are Monterrey-based steel service center group Villacero and a financial arm of Cargill. AHMSA owes debts to both. Neither they nor AHMSA could be reached for comment.

The bankruptcy trustee, Victor Manuel Aguilera Gomez, said the process must balance transparency with speed. “I can say there are more than five interested parties,” he told ReportAcero, including “a couple of foreigners.”

Meanwhile, concerns about asset integrity continue. The company has maintained security at its idled operations, with rumors of theft and looting rampant.

A local news update from A Tiempo TV recently confirmed steel scrap remains on site at the Monclova plant. But Aguilera admitted to ReportAcero that some non-essential assets, including scrap and coal, have already been sold. He explained, “If these non-essential assets are not sold to launch operations as a new company, maintenance on the essential assets will cease and will deteriorate, making it impossible to complete the sale.”

Workers remain central to the case. Thousands have gone more than two years without wages. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum recently pledged that “workers come first, above creditors, above all else” in this process.

However, recent reports question why some shareholders of Grupo Acero del Norte, AHMSA’s largest shareholder, are listed as labor creditors in the bankruptcy process. Two former presidents of AHMSA, Alonso Ancira Elizondo and Xavier Desiderio Autrey, both previously arrested for fraud and mismanagement, are listed as being owed nearly $50 million by their former employer. According to the trustee, they were registered as employees and on the company’s payroll. Therefore, their payment is up to the bankruptcy judge to decide.

Sheinbaum has tasked Mexico’s finance, economy, and labor ministries with helping to rescue AHMSA for its workers. Officials have suggested the state could provide soft loans or incentives to help restart production.

One government official suggested the AHMSA asset auction could happen by the end of the year. But another made what may be a more accurate statement: It “will not be done in the short term.”

And so the wait continues to see who steps forward to claim what was once Mexico’s largest steelmaker.