(a) An eligible Borrower must be a Qualified Steel Company that can demonstrate:

(1) Credit is not otherwise available to it under reasonable terms or conditions sufficient to meet its financing needs, as reflected in the financial and business plans of the company;

(2) The prospective earning power of that company, together with the character and value of the security pledged, furnish reasonable assurance of repayment of the loan to be guaranteed in accordance with its terms;

(3) The company has agreed to permit audits by the General Accounting Office and an independent auditor acceptable to the Board prior to the issuance of the guarantee and while any such guaranteed loan is outstanding;

(4) It has experienced layoffs, production losses, or financial losses between January 1, 1998, and the date of application for the Guarantee, demonstrated as a comparison between employment, production, or net income existing on January 1, 1998 and on the date of application; and

(5) In the case of a purchaser of substantial assets of a Qualified Steel Company; the Qualified Steel Company is unable to re-organize itself.

(b) For purposes of this section, a company will be considered a purchaser of substantial assets of a Qualified Steel Company if the company's identifiable assets purchased from a Qualified Steel Company are 50 percent or more of the consolidated assets of that Qualified Steel Company and its subsidiaries.

(c) The Lender must provide with its application a letter from at least one lending institution other than the Lender to which the Borrower has applied for financial assistance dated within six months of submission of the application, indicating that the Borrower was denied for substantially the same loan it is now applying for, and the reasons the Borrower was unable to obtain the financing for which it applied. In addition, the Lender applying for a guarantee under this Program must certify that it would not make the loan without the Board's guarantee.