British Steel’s Chinese owner has had its bid to acquire a factory in France rejected by a court as concerns grow in some European capitals about companies from the Asian superpower snapping up assets. Jingye Group, which saved the UK’s second-largest steelmaker from bankruptcy earlier this year, was attempting to wrest control of a small mill in north-east France that belonged to British Steel.
A parallel sale process for the Hayange site, which produces metal track for railways, was opened last year amid misgivings in Paris over the future of a manufacturing facility it deems of national importance.
However, a tribunal in Strasbo