Ferrovan Oy files for bankruptcy

Ferrovan Oy entered voluntary liquidation on March 21, 2019, after which measures were taken to identify the conditions for realization of the company’s assets, for finding a purchaser to continue the business operations or for the controlled shutdown of the company’s operations. The company received some purchase offers during the voluntary liquidation process, but unfortunately the offers were not viable.  

Ferrovan Oy’s goal has been to build a metal production plant in Raahe for extraction of vanadium from LD-slag, a by-product of steel production. The project would have been a high-technology circular economy project. Vanadium is mainly used in the steel and chemical industries. The Ferrovan project began in 2011, and Finnish Minerals Group was involved in the last 6 months of the project. The negotiations for the financing needed to build the plant were at an advanced stage. Unfortunately, the company was not able to reach an agreement on changes to the raw material supply contract that were required by the financiers. Due to this and the increased investment costs, the financiers and owners concluded that it was no longer feasible to continue advancing the project.

Finnish Minerals Group is not a shareholder of Ferrovan but has convertible loan receivables and related option rights in the company. As was previously announced, Finnish Minerals Group will make a write-down of just under EUR 11 million for Ferrovan. The majority of this sum is based on investments in Ferrovan which were made earlier by Finnish Industry Investment Oy (TESI) and transferred to Finnish Minerals Group in autumn 2018. The actual financial loss of Finnish Minerals Group is EUR 3.1 million.

Inquiries
Matti Hietanen, CEO, Finnish Minerals Group 
+358 40 8238806