Hilco Global announced it has purchased the steel processing facility located at the Lee Steel Corporation site in Romulus, Michigan. The deal which was approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit, Michigan last week includes a 200,000 square foot plant and all of the steel processing equipment located at that site. The sale is expected to close in mid-September.
The acquisition of the assets at the former Lee Steel Romulus site is a joint venture between Hilco Real Estate LLC and Hilco Industrial LLC. “Hilco Global is planning to run an aggressive marketing and sale process to find a buyer for this state of the art steel processing complex following the mid-September closing” said, Ben Nortman - EVP of Hilco Global.
Since filing for chapter 11 protection on April 13, 2015, Lee Steel continued to operate the business during the bankruptcy process. Huntington Bank provided debtor-in-possession financing while Huron Consulting Group, a national turnaround firm, has been managing the restructuring process and sale of all of the Lee Steel company assets.
Laura Marcero, Managing Director of Huron Consulting Group and Chief Restructuring Officer for Lee Steel Corporation said “Unfortunately, the original owners at Lee Steel recently expanded and invested heavily in the new Romulus facility just as the dramatic decline in world steel demand hit that substantially lowered commodity prices."
Steve Wolf, Managing Partner, Hilco Industrial said “This is an impressive, state of the art steel processing facility which makes it a very valuable asset”. Lee Steel had been processing and selling steel products since 1947, delivering a full line of flat-rolled carbon steel products including hot rolled steel, cold rolled steel, hot dipped galvanized steel, electro-galvanized steel, aluminized steel, pre-painted, and exposed coated products.
Robert Perez – EVP at Hilco Real Estate indicated that the firm plans to seek buyers for the facility as a whole or in part. “Hilco is well suited to run a sale process that will include marketing the entire Romulus steel processing complex, vetting and evaluating all offers,” he said. “Hilco has extensive experience in marketing industrial real estate and machinery and equipment with asset sales exceeding $1.4 billion worldwide in 2014.”
Hilco Global is a privately held diversified financial services company and the world’s preeminent authority on maximizing the value of assets for both healthy and distressed companies. Hilco Global has over 500 employees operating within 20 specialized business units located around the world. All of these experts focus on asset valuation, monetization and advisory solutions. For over 30 years Hilco Global has successfully served as an advisor, agent, investor and/or partner in thousands of transactions.