Celsa begins the group's sale process and maintains profits in the first six months of the year
The board of directors is studying both the stock market launch and the direct purchase by new shareholders
BarcelonaThe Catalan steel multinational Celsa continued to increase its profits in the second quarter of this 2026, after recovering to the black in the first three months of this year, as reported this Tuesday by the company's leadership in a press conference. The company is now beginning the search for new owners once the management team considers that the accounts are sufficiently cleaned up "without haste or urgency," said Rafael Villaseca, president of the group.
Specifically, Celsa Steel, the group's parent company, earned 50.7 million euros between January and June 2026, which contrasts with losses of 107 million and 3 million in the same periods of 2024 and 2025, respectively. In the first quarter the company announced its return to the black after three years, with a profit of 18 million, which "has been consolidated and improved in the second quarter, and has closed the first half of the year very positively," added Celsa's CEO, Jordi Cazorla.
Turnover in the first half was 1.786 billion euros. In addition, the company has "very substantially" improved its net debt, which has gone from 3.689 billion euros in November 2023 to 1.134 billion in June of this year, explained Cazorla.
Cazorla highlighted that the company has grown in a context of "stabilization after years of decline" in sales in the steel market on a European scale: "Production contracted by 2.9% due to an increase in steel imports from third countries to the EU" in 2025, said Cazorla, which placed the production of the European steel sector at a "historic low." This year, European legislation has been more favorable to European manufacturers, as the safeguard mechanism has been applied, which restricts and imposes tariffs on the entry of foreign steel into the European Union, and new rules have also been applied that require non-EU steel to meet the same carbon dioxide emission requirements as that produced on the continent.
Celsa has also maintained an investment of 67 million euros, the same amount as in the first six months of last year. All investments have been financed with own funds, according to the CEO. The objective of these investments is to improve the group's vertical integration, according to Villaseca.
"The company has started investing more than ever in all its plants, not just one," declared Cazorla. This year, the metallurgical group has opened a new scrap production center in Miranda de Ebro, in Castile and León, which "is already operational," and is also preparing a new range of high value-added products with a new production line at the A Laracha factory, in Galicia.
Likewise, it has carried out a pilot test for its global artificial intelligence (AI) project at the Castellbisbal factory, which has allowed for the reduction of 4,600 tons of carbon dioxide and 2.2% of furnace consumption.
Regarding asset sales, after divesting from its subsidiaries in the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom, for the moment Villaseca has not closed the door on divestment in the Polish subsidiary, although the management team does not consider it a priority.
Shareholder divestment
In September 2023, a court ruling determined that the Rubiralta family, founder of the company and owner until then of 100% of the capital, lost ownership of Celsa, which passed into the hands of the investment funds that were creditors of the group. The judge sided with the funds, which obtained control of the company by swapping the company's high debt for shares, thus expelling the founding family from the shareholding.
In this context, currently 98% of the capital is in the hands of four foreign investment funds: SVP, Attestor, Golden Tree and Cross Ocean. "We have turned the company around in an absolutely radical way," declared Villaseca, which "has allowed shareholders to reconsider their position in the company."
These shareholders were from the very beginning "temporary in nature," as these are investment funds specialized in buying indebted companies to then sell their shares once the accounts are healthy. Thus, the board of directors already has the mandate to seek an exit for these shareholders, whether through an IPO or by selling the capital to new shareholders.
Villaseca has assured that, since the company's accounts are in good standing, the four funds are in no rush to exit the shareholding, nor do they have any preference between entering the markets or a merger or acquisition by third-party companies. Furthermore, he insisted that the divestment process "begins now" and denied any contact with potential interested companies, neither European nor non-EU. According to the president, after three years at the head of the group by the current board of directors, Celsa currently has a "notable value," although he refused to put a specific price on it.