France / Hollande gives Mittal deadline to save jobs … or nationalisation

PRESIDENT Francois Hollande has given ArcelorMittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal until December 1 to draw up a plan to save jobs at a French plant of the world’s largest steel maker, including its nationalisation.

Mr Hollande, who met Mr Mittal for an hour at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on Tuesday, said he asked Mr Mittal to pursue discussions with the government until the December 1 deadline given to the company to find a buyer for the site at Florange in north-eastern France. The statement did not say what options were discussed.

“We want to ensure the continuing operation of the site,” Mr Hollande said before meeting Mr Mittal, adding that its nationalisation “will be part of the discussions. That concerns only the site itself, of course, and not the whole group.”

French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg, who first raised the possibility of its nationalisation, sparked a furore after he told Les Echos newspaper on Monday “we don’t want Mittal in France anymore”. Mr Montebourg accused the Indian CEO of going back on his word to protect jobs and said the company’s Florange site could be under temporary state control.

“Montebourg’s comments on Mittal are rarely what we hear from ministers,” Yves Marcais, an equity sales trader at Global Equities in Paris, said yesterday. “The word nationalisation hasn’t been used in France since former president Francois Mitterrand in the early ’80s. The legitimacy here is that there are jobs they want to save.”…

Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor from

via Hollande gives Mittal deadline to save jobs | Europe | BDlive.