Fiber Excellence: the Occitanie Region requests temporary nationalization

While the Toulouse commercial court must examine Fiber Excellence's takeover offer on September 8, 2026, the Occitanie Region is requesting this Wednesday, September 2, a temporary nationalization of the site. She is demanding 15 million euros from the State to finance a project valued at 91 million euros and to give herself time to find a new investor.

The Fiber Excellence soap opera continues. Monday August 24, a takeover offer was submitted by the Occitanie Region via ARIS (Regional Agency for Strategic Investments) to buy the Fiber Excellence pulp mill in Saint-Gaudens (Haute-Garonne), placed in compulsory liquidation since July 29.

This Wednesday, September 2, the president of the Occitanie Region Carole Delga detailed the progress of the offer and the new elements concerning the future of the site.

“Essential” nationalization

She asks the President of the Republic for the “temporary nationalization” of Fiber Excellence, with State participation of 15 million euros, or 10 million more than what she had obtained. The Occitanie Region must already invest around 13 million euros. “We are halfway there,” explains Carole Delga. This nationalization is “absolutely essential” while it takes time to find a foreign investor who can replace the state and the region.

In fact, there are no other manufacturers in the paper pulp sector in France. “Today, we must turn to investors, either from the Iberian Peninsula or from Northern Europe,” explains Carole Delga. But this search for an investor should take time, around “three to four months”. A deadline that cannot be granted by the Toulouse commercial court, which must analyze the offer on Tuesday September 8 behind closed doors.

91 million euros of investments

“This is why there is a need for temporary nationalization where the region and the State are shareholders. The industrialist, when he has given an offer, will replace the State and the region and we will switch back to a classic private industrial model,” explains Carole Delga.

The Region has until tomorrow, Thursday September 3, to adjust its recovery project. The cost is estimated at 31 million euros for restarting the activity plus 60 million euros for diversification: a total of 91 million euros. This substantial investment therefore pushes the Region to ask the State to become one of the shareholders of Fiber Excellence.

In the event of closure of the factory, the damage would be estimated at 55 million euros, divided between the social cost and the impact on the sector. “It would be a social tragedy for the hundreds of Fiber Excellence employees but also the entire wood industry, and there are thousands of them,” warns the president of the Region.