Liberty House, owned by Indian-origin businessman Sanjeev Gupta, has confirmed that it will submit its bid for loss-making Tata Steel's businesses in an announcement that gives fresh hopes to the thousands who lie on the verge of unemployment.
The commodities trading firm said its team was evaluating the bid. “We can confirm that Liberty will submit a letter of intent to Tata Steel on Tuesday and has put in place a strong internal transaction team and panel of leading external advisers to take the bid forward,” a spokesperson said. Gupta is being advised by former Tata Steel executives, including Jon Bolton, who until last year headed Tata's long products business in Europe, the report said. Gupta expressed his desire to invest in the steel industry and return businesses “to their former glory”. Liberty House was established by the businessman while a student at Cambridge.
The British government, in its bid to avoid the loss of 10,000 jobs, has offered hundreds of millions of pounds in support to potential buyers and said it could take a 25 per cent stake in the firm. Firms including Deloitte and Grant Thornton will advise Liberty House on the dealing with the almost 500-million pound funding deficit in Tata's pensions scheme. Just last week, Gupta completed the acquisition of Tata's Scottish plants in a back to back transaction in which the Scottish government acquired the two plants of Dalzell and Clydebridge in Lanarkshire and sell them to Liberty.
Other bidders for the remaining Tata Steel UK assets include Albion Steel, a UK start-up business. A Tata management team buyout is seen as the other serious contender at this stage.
Cameron urges Tata Steel to sell whole of its UK ops
Prime Minister David Cameron has told Tata Steel that any sale of its remaining UK assets would have to cover the whole of its business and be given sufficient time to take place. Thousands of employees will be rendered jobless if the company quits.
Cameron's spokeswoman said the prime minister wanted to see for himself what the situation was at Port Talbot and toured the site to see the control room of the blast furnace and the finishing lines. “He had a roundtable discussion with senior management from Tata and the (trade) unions. That was largely focused on the action the government has taken to support the steel sector. The prime minister underlined our commitment to working with Tata to support the future of steel-making in Port Talbot, emphasised the need for the Tata sales process to cover the whole business, (and) for there to be sufficient time for that process to run.”
The Tata Group announced plans to quit its entire British steel operation last month, leaving the government battling to save an industry that has been hurt by cheap Chinese imports, soaring costs and weak demand.
