History of the Riva Group

The Riva Group is 100% family-owned. In early 2014 the business suffered from major setbacks relating to pollution concerns and alleged breaches of environmental law at its Taranto works, from which it never really recovered and the Ilva steel assets at Taranto were finally sold to ArcelorMittal and other investors in June 2017.

The timeline below covers the history of the firm to mid-2017.

1954: Riva Acciaio founded as a scrap trading firm.
1957: Construction of 1st steelworks 'Acciaierie e Ferriere Riva'.
1964: Downstream expansion begins from ingots to flat products.
1970: Acquisition of the Tanaro Works and of SEII Works.
1971: Riva assumes management of Spain's Siderurgica Sevillana.
1974: Set up of Associated Steel Industries (ASI) in Canada.
1977: Acquisition of majority control of France's Iton Seine (rebar).
1981: Acquisition of Officine e Fonderie de Galtarossa (OFG).
1988: Riva Group acquires majority control of Sevillana.
1988: Acquisition of Acciaierie di Cornigliano.
1989: Purchase of Gargenville steelworks in France.
1989: Acquisition of Charleroi-Marcinelle rod mill, Belgium.
1991: Purchase of Hennigsdorfer & Brandenburger Elektrostahlwerke.
1995: Purchase of Ilva Laminati Piani from Italian government.
1997: Acquisition of Hellenic Steel in Greece.
1999: Investment in shipping - purchase of Ilva Servizi Marittimi.
2000: Purchase of SAM Group of EAF bar and rod mills from Usinor.
2005: Closure of integrated plant at Ilva Genova Works.
2009: Construction of state-of-the-art HDG facility at Novi Ligure.
2010: Front end modernisation [bloom casting] at Caronno.
2011: Purchase from Edison of two power plants in Taranto.
2012: Riva Group's Ilva plant ordered to cut pollution in February.
2012: Closure threatened in Taranto pollution crisis mid-2012.
2013: One year after arrest, ILVA managers freed from jail.
2014: Mid-2014, Italian government asks ArcelorMittal to look at Ilva.
2015: Mid-2015, Italy's financial police arrest the former CEO Fabio Riva.
2015: Italian government keeps control. Taranto stays operational with aid.
2016: Search commences in January for buyer of Ilva steel works.
2017: Business sold to ArcelorMittal consortium in June 2017.
2017: For subsequent developments, see ArcelorMittal history page.

Notes

Acciaierie e Ferriere Riva was located in Caronno, an industrial area not far from Milan.
1970 acquisitions allowed entry of the Group into long products. SEII denotes Societa Esercizi Impianti Industriali di Malegno - based in Brescia.
1974: The business of ASI was the recovery of auto sector scrap iron.
The rebar producer Iton Seine was adapted to use steel rails as the feedstock for production of reinforcing bar. 1977 acquisition by Riva was of an 80% ownership stake.
1981: The business of OFG was the production of reinforcing bar and of drawing quality wire rod.
Purchase in 1989 of the Charleroi-Marcinelle rod mill was from Belgium's Cockerille-Sambre.
The purchase by Riva in 1995 of Ilva's steel assets made the Riva Group Italy's largest steel company. The purchase also brought Riva control over Tunisacier, a producer of steel plate based in Biserta, Tunisia.
2000: SAM denotes Societe des Aciers d'Armature pour le Beton.
2005 restructuring at Genova works involved closure of the blast furnaces; reorientation to downstream production at Cornigliano.
2009: Novi Ligure HDG line to be fully integrated with Cornigliano, targeting auto-sector sales.
2012: Judges in Taranto placed key parts of the steelworks under special administration and threatened closure if a solution could not be found to the pollution which had allegedly created an environmental disaster in the southern Italian city.
End 2012: Criminal probe into environmental scandal at Taranto underway - several senior executives are arrested.
2013: Emilio Riva, the former chief of troubled steel manufacturer ILVA, his son Nicholas, and the former Taranto mill manager Luigi Capogrosso were released for jail 12 months after their arrest in connection with environmental problems created at their steel works in southern Italy.
2014: ArcelorMittal Chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal confirmed in mid-2014 that the Italian government had approached ArcelorMittal, with a view to the world's largest steelmakier possibly investing in or buying the troubled Taranto-based steel plant.
2015: Fabio Riva was arrested in June 2015 after he was extradited from Britain on charges that he committed crimes against the environment and fraud at Europe's biggest steel factory.
2015: In August Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi won a confidence vote in the Senate allowing banks offload bad loans and to keep the works open.
2016: The Italian government in January 2016 published an invitation to would-be buyers of the Taranto Steel plant to submit offers for the purchase of the business by 10th February.
Sale of Ilva took place in June 2017 and involved a Euro 1.8 billion purchase by the AM Investco consortium which included ArcelorMittal, Marcegaglia and Banca Intesa Sanpaolo.

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Related Links
ArcelorMittal History

History of the Riva Group - company profile.

History of the Riva Group