Various bids, but the bankrupt steelmaker ASK Romein was not acquired

MALLE – Malle’s bankrupt steel construction company ASK Romein has yet to find a suitable buyer. This is confirmed by the trustee who is appointed to pursue bankruptcy. However, several parties submitted offers for the factory, which employs 135 employees, but none of them met the conditions.

ASK Romein is the Dutch steel construction company that built, among other things, the roof construction of the Antwerp football club stadium, the new south stand at KV Mechelen and the bottling hall for the Duvel brewery. The branch in Male’ filed for bankruptcy in mid-April, after the company’s three branches in the Netherlands were declared bankrupt a week earlier. A project with a data center in Denmark went wrong and serious delays in another contract with a chemical company in the port of Antwerp killed ASK Romein.

Also Read: Several Buyers ASK Romein Candidate for BankruptcyEven after bankruptcy, the syndicates continued to hope for another company takeover. After all, the department in Mali, with ninety workers and forty-five white-collar employees, would still be profitable. Moreover, after a few weeks, many potential buyers have already applied.

But coordinator Catherine Tuggels now says any takeover offer falls short. “In the coming months, we will decide to sell the company’s properties, which are now being negotiated,” he added.

Heavy setback

The news is a major setback for employees who had hoped to get their jobs back under a new owner. And there were quite a few of the 135 employees there, says ACV secretary Niels van den Houde. “Many people were not yet looking for a new job, but were waiting for a possible takeover. But with this decision it now seems to be the end of the story for them.”

The movable and immovable property of ASK Romein may now be auctioned off. One of the potential buyers, who wishes to remain anonymous, is incomprehensible about this. “There is a very good chance that individual sales will make less than they make from an aggregate supply. It is worth noting that the Trustee does not think of employees and creditors. There is a risk of losing jobs unnecessarily.”