LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – If Braidy Industries realizes its vision of building a $1.7 billion aluminum plant in northeast Kentucky, it will be without the involvement of the man who conceived of the company, named it after one of his daughters and sold the idea to early investors, including Kentucky state government.
Braidy Industries founder Craig Bouchard and the company’s board members and early backers – including Kentucky, which invested $15 million in taxpayer money in the firm -- settled their acrimonious legal battle over control of the Ashland-based company, according to statements released Tuesday.
Both sides said the settlement allows the company to focus on raising money to build the much-anticipated aluminum mill.
Bouchard, a Naples, Florida businessman, will give up his seat on the company’s board and his quest to replace the other four board members, who fired him as the company’s CEO on Jan. 28. Bouchard will no longer be involved with Braidy Industries “in any capacity,” according to the company’s statement.
“Both the company and Bouchard recognize the contribution each party has made to the creation of Braidy Industries and the state-of-the-art aluminum rolling mill in Eastern Kentucky,” the statement said. “The Board of Directors looks forward to building on the foundation Bouchard set and bringing his vision to fruition.”
As of February, Braidy Industries still needed to raise about $500 million in investor money to line up debt financing for the construction of the aluminum mill.
The mill site outside Ashland remains vacant three years after Bouchard and former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin first heralded the project and its expected 550 factory jobs as the start of the economic “revitalization” of Appalachia.
A fence that cost more than $100,000 was erected in late 2019 around the site where the company formerly called Braidy Industries hoped to bui…
Some Kentucky lawmakers, who voted unanimously in 2017 to invest $15 million in the company, have called for the state money to be returned, fearing the company may never finance the construction of the plant.
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Braidy Industries in April lost its interim CEO, Tom Modrowski. That left the company without a day-to-day executive because the judge presiding over the legal battle in Delaware court ordered the company not to appoint a leader without Bouchard’s consent.
Braidy Industries made no mention of executive appointments in the wake of the settlement.
Louisville businessman Charles Price, the chairman of the company’s board, has led the company since Bouchard’s ouster.
The company said through a spokeswoman Wednesday that it is “fully focused on the job at hand— finalizing fundraising and building the mill in Ashland, KY. The company is closer today to finalizing financing and constructing the mill than ever before. Over the last several months, the team has worked extremely hard to bring this mill to fruition, and the work is paying off.”
In an email to WDRB, Bouchard said the court battle in Delaware, which started when he filed suit in February, would have taken too long to resolve. The judge in the case delivered Bouchard a partial victory in April, but still left the incumbent board in control of the company for months to come as the litigation was set to play out.
“We can’t wait a year to get the company in a position to build the mill,” Bouchard said. “When the pandemic ends we have to start. They have some good new managers I have known a long time and respect. Best thing for all involved is to give them a chance. That means me stepping back and doing the right thing.”
