Baltic States – CIS, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Metals Market

After signing the agreement, Velmers said that a very important chapter has concluded in the company's sale process, and that he was pleased at finding a suitable investor and signing the agreement before deadline.

"We will put a lot of effort in order to hand over the Liepajas metalurgs property to the new owner so that the company could resume operating as soon as possible. This is good news both for Liepaja residents and Latvia's national economy overall," Velmers said.

The head of KVV Group Valery Krishtal said that signing the agreement marks a new beginning for the company. "I can assure that on behalf of Latvia's government, the insolvency process was handled professionally. We will continue to actively work so that the company can resume operating as soon as possible; in the best case scenario – already in November," Krishtal said.

As reported, the Ukrainian company KVV Group won the Liepajas metalurgs tender and the right to acquire the metallurgical plant for EUR 107 million.

KVV Group intends to invest a further EUR 30 million into Liepajas metalurgs and resume production already this year.

It is planned that Liepajas metalurgs will manufacture metal products for KVV Group, as well as for export.

Liepajas metalurgs halted production last spring. In July 2013, the State Treasury repaid from the state budget the principal amount of the loan owed to the Italian bank UniCredit by Liepajas metalurgs – EUR 67,465,056 or LVL 47,414,711.