Greensill Capital has filed for administration, warning that it was in “severe financial distress” putting thousands of steel jobs at risk. Greensill's main customer is metals magnate Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG which was “experiencing financial difficulties” and had “started to default” on obligations to Greensill. Greensill has about $5bn of exposure to Gupta’s GFG. Documents filed in court
revealed that GFG said in a February 7 letter that if Greensill stopped providing working capital
it would fall into insolvency.
GFG’s operations, which include UK-based Liberty Steel, continued to trade but if the group
were to fail, it would put tens of thousands of steel and engineering jobs around the world at risk,
including 5,000 in the UK. Union officials are due to meet Gupta to seek assurances over the future of his businesses. The Community steel union said Gupta needed to tell them “how he plans to protect jobs” at sites including its aluminium smelter in Lochaber in Scotland.
