Eramet’s board confirmed on October 12 that the group will launch a €500 million capital increase with preferential subscription rights in the fourth quarter of 2026, a transaction first announced in February. The company said the raise is needed to restore its financial position, strengthen equity and maintain compliance with bank covenants while it continues its strategy, alongside performance improvements and asset sales.
The French state will increase its position through the Agence des Participations de l’Etat. The APE will subscribe for its pro-rata 27.1 percent share and may purchase all or part of the subscription rights of Sorame-CEIR, the Duval family vehicle, subject to a ceiling under which the state’s effective voting rights would not exceed 49 percent. If the APE does not take all of those rights, Sorame-CEIR would subscribe for the balance, with put and call options between the two shareholders over the resulting shares.
That structure makes France Eramet’s largest shareholder without a formal nationalisation, a distinction Chair and Chief Executive Christel Bories stressed to reporters. The Duval family, currently the largest holder at about 37 percent, becomes the second shareholder and renews its pact with the state.
Eramet produces nickel, manganese and lithium, metals France and Europe are trying to secure against intensifying international competition. The state is therefore not acting as a passive rescue investor: it is buying influence over a critical metals supplier while the company works through weaker earnings, higher debt and a management transition, with the clarified shareholding intended to help recruit a permanent chief executive.