The restructuring deal to lift Stelco out of creditor protection is a complicated web of transactions that essentially means Bedrock Industries will get the keys to the place for less than $500 million.

Interestingly, the new owners will be taking over a business with an estimated $300 million in cash, which Stelco has accumulated over the past two and a half years while under creditor protection.

That money will go some distance to mitigate the upfront costs, but a sizeable portion will be chewed up through day-to-day operations and paying for orders of raw materials, says a source involved in putting the deal together. Those unknown costs, and others, make it impossible to pin a bottom-line selling price.

But it will be a far cry from the $1.1 billion that U.S. Steel paid in 2007 to buy Stelco, a much larger company at the time.

"This isn't a traditional purchase," said McMaster University business professor Marvin Ryder. "In essence, Bedrock is going to assume ownership of the company by settling all of the claims against it."

From public documents of the deal, Ryder estimates Bedrock will pay $400 to $450 million. A source in the provincial finance ministry office said he estimated it to be closer to $500 million. Ryder says, if you take into consideration commitments over the next 20 years, the figure becomes closer to $800 million.

Bedrock managed to settle claims against Stelco and remove environmental and pension liability at the same time. It will pay hundreds of millions, but the company becomes the first-ever owner of Stelco to build a protective wall against future obligations to deal with contaminated land (the province is assuming that) or pension obligation shortfalls (according to terms in the overall agreement).

Just as important, says Ryder, is that the company will emerge into the marketplace debt-free and in a very good position to take advantage of a more favourable steel market than it was in 2014.

U.S. Steel Canada, as it was known then, went into court-supervised creditor protection Sept. 16, 2014. On Friday, a Toronto judge endorsed a restructuring plan that will see the American venture capital firm take over the company — now known by its historical name Stelco — on June 30 and leave the protection granted under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA).

By the numbers: PAID TO CREDITORS

$130 million — to U.S. Steel as a secured creditor

$15.4 million — to non-secured creditors

$9 million — a settlement of claims from salaried retirees

PENSION PAYMENTS

$160 million to $430 million — the amount of money Bedrock-owned Stelco has pledged to contribute to pension plans over the next 20 years. It will vary depending business results

$1 billion — estimated unfunded liability in all Stelco pension plans

14,000 — the number of pensioners and beneficiaries in all Stelco pension plans with most being retired members of United Steelworkers Local 1005

RETIREE BENEFITS

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$33 million per year — money paid for 10 years by Bedrock per year for other post-employment benefits (OPEBs), backed in part by loans from the province

$8 million — provincial government money paid to supplement lost benefits to Stelco workers after the October 2015 court decision that allowed the company to suspend OPEB payments to retirees

TAXES

$10 million — back property taxes, penalties and interest owed to the City of Hamilton that will be paid by Bedrock after the closing of the deal. Millions in property taxes are also owed to the County of Haldimand for Lake Erie Works. Figures were unavailable

PROVINCIAL SUPPORT

$22 million — a fully secured loan from the province to help pay for OPEBs. The loan is payable in three and four years from now

$66 million — a provincial loan over 10 years to assist with OPEBS

$10 million — a provincial loan to establish the land trust known as LandCo. Stelco will become a tenant on one-third of the current Stelco property, which will be passed over to the land trust with the province assuming the liability for historical pollution of the site

LAND REMEDIATION

$80 million — the amount Bedrock will pay toward remediating former Stelco lands; the company will have no liabilities beyond this

CASH RESERVES

$300 million — estimated cash reserves accumulated by Stelco while in bankruptcy protection; in a company report late last month, Stelco's cash reserves were listed at $285 million and the figure is thought to be closer to $300 million at this time