The French Minister of Industrial Renewal, Arnaud Montebourg, was present in the Dentons Paris office on Thursday July 11, 2013 for negotiations on the German aluminum group Trimet’s purchase of the Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and Castelsarrasin industrial sites, owned by the Rio Tinto Alcan company. The meeting mentioned in AFP press releases as being held “in the center of Paris” took place at Dentons.

Olivier Genevois, Emmanuelle de Schepper, Tanit Gendre and Thomas Priolet represented Rio Tinto Alcan, a mining giant and a longtime client of the Firm, in talks which ended with a signed agreement on Saturday July 13, 2013.  Olivier Genevois then left for Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne for the visit of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Minister Montebourg.  Heinz-Peter Schlüter (CEO of Trimet), along with Jacynthe Côté (CEO of RTA) and Henri Proglio (CEO of EDF), signed a firm acquisition offer for the two factories in the presence of Jean-Marc Ayrault and Arnaud Montebourg.  This offer was finalized overnight, following 45 hours of negotiations.

In this partnership, EDF will hold 35% of the new entity. Trimet will hold 65%. The Banque Publique d’Investissement will own 5% of the capital.  This is a firm offer, subject to informative and consultation processes of RTA’s works committees and accompanied by suspensive conditions.

The minister has been deeply engaged in this affair, which concerns 510 jobs in the Savoie and Tarn-et-Garonne departments.  The State has been involved throughout the entire process.