Asturian Duro Felguera will be the first company to ask the government for a ransom to overcome the crisis caused by the coronavirus. The historic industrial group has had a complex financial situation for years and has now suffered a severe impact due to the slowdown in economic activity, losing 45% of its sales only in the first quarter of the year. On his board of directors, which has unanimously approved requesting urgent support from Moncloa, former socialist ministers Valeriano Gómez and Jordi Sevilla have been sitting for a few months .

The company stresses in a statement sent to the CNMV its status as "strategic and especially relevant" for the Asturian industrial fabric, an essential requirement to be able to access the rescue fund of 10 billion euros approved last Tuesday by the Council of Ministers.

The group seeks to strengthen its capital and curb the deterioration of its treasury, which in March was in the red with debt of 94 million euros, higher than its current level of liquidity. The board of directors warns of "difficulties in maintaining its normal activity" and launches an SOS to attract financing that will allow it to strengthen its traditional activities, reformulate its international business and promote new business lines linked to the two great vectors of reconstruction indicated by the European fund: digitization and the green economy.

Duro Felguera is a company that needs a large amount of financing and above all guarantees to be able to enter turnkey engineering competitions all over the world. The group managed in 2018 to sign with the bank a refinancing of its credits, but this time the entities have avoided improving their conditions and offering oxygen to avoid taking new risks in the face of the decline of the firm.

The plan designed by the industrial group passes because the Sepi enters the shareholder with a relevant injection of capital and unlocks the negotiations with private partners so that they invest in the company. This would be carried out in a second phase through a capital increase, financial sources explain to EL MUNDO. One of the conditions established by the public fund is that its investment does not improve the company's net worth at the end of 2019, which was 16 million euros , although the fine print of the mechanism itself stipulates "with few exceptions" that the minimum investment It will be 25 million euros. Today that figure would be equivalent to 50% of its market value after the sharp deterioration that the stock has suffered in recent years. In 2015, each group's title had a value of 22 euros, and today it barely exceeds 51 cents, weighed down by enormous uncertainty about its future.

An operation of 80 million

Group executives are negotiating with Sepi the final amount and place around 80 million the total value of the operation between public and private capital as one of the hypotheses on the table. Sources close to the agreement assure that public support will be essential more for its symbolic value as a sign of support and trust for the project than for the amount they receive. The package would also include the granting of liquidity and guarantees by the ICO to reinforce its industrial activity.

The company already accepted the ERTE mechanism last April, sending home a total of 672 employees temporarily for six months. The figure represents more than half of the workforce.

The rescue request now implies demanding conditions for the company and its management team. During the period of the aid and until the company does not return 75% of the capital loaned, dividends will be prohibited and the directors may not collect any type of variable remuneration.

In addition, a managing body that will direct Sepi and is made up of senior government officials will supervise the company's operations to prevent it from taking excessive risks in its actions. The group will have a total of six years to return the capital under the threat of having to pay an additional surcharge of up to 20% if it is delayed.

Duro Felguera will be the first, but not the only company, to go to the government in search of financial support that private investors do not grant. Airlines, hotels and other industrial groups have already established the first contacts with government representatives to structure the next entry of the State into its shareholders.

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