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Fibre Excellence Management Files Offer to Save France’s Last Two Pulp Mills

The bid seeks to move all assets and about 670 jobs into a new company and will be examined by the Toulouse commercial court.

Overview

  • Company president Jean-François Guillot and his management team officially lodged a takeover offer at the Tribunal de commerce de Toulouse, meeting the court’s 1 June submission deadline.
  • The proposal is designed to create a new legal entity that would assume the group’s assets and roughly 670 employees and was first presented to staff and union representatives.
  • Fibre Excellence entered redressement judiciaire on 27 April after its Indonesian shareholder withdrew funding, a move that prompted the court to solicit takeover offers by 1 June.
  • Regional governments have backed the rescue plan and Occitanie has pledged financial support, but the offer contains conditions to be cleared before a 17 June court hearing, including disputes over energy pricing.
  • The two mills are crucial to the local wood industry and buy about 135 truckloads of timber a day, so suppliers and thousands of indirect jobs are at risk while the court reviews the sole reported bid.