Liberty Steel to sell Stocksbridge plant in company-wide overhaul

Liberty Steel Group is to offload a number of its UK plants, including its aerospace and specialist alloys steel business, as it looks to restructure following the collapse of backer Greensill Capital.

Liberty, the UK’s third-largest steel company and part the Gupta Family Group Alliance, said that the plant in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, was a “high-quality business” but was not core to its future vision for the company.

“This sale will allow Liberty to focus on developing its Rotherham plant, including its electric arc furnaces, into a competitive, 2m tonnes recycled green steel plant, one of the largest in Europe,” it said.

Stocksbridge’s downstream plants – the narrow strip mill in Brinsworth and Performance Steels in West Bromwich – will be included in the sale.

In addition, Liberty has also started the formal sale process of Liberty Pressing Solutions in Coventry, and Liberty Aluminium Technologies, which has sites in Worcestershire and Essex. It said it was “working collaboratively” with customers to find new owners for the businesses, which are also not core to Liberty’s vision of decarbonised green steel.

The plants employ around 1,500 people in total.

Monday’s announcement follows a series of meetings held over the weekend in Dubai between Indian tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, the founder of GFG, and Liberty’s biggest creditor, Credit Suisse Asset Management.

The restructuring and subsequent refinancing would allow it repay Credit Suisse “in full”, Liberty said. The Swiss bank had launched court proceedings to recover its debt, but Liberty said both sides were now in “advanced discussions” to reach a formal standstill agreement on its Australian business while the refinancing is carried out.

It added: “Both parties also made significant progress in agreeing a framework to resolve GFG’s remaining exposure with Credit Suisse.”

Credit Suisse lent $1.2bn to GFG through its supply chain finance funds, which it was forced to suspend when Greensill – a supply chain finance firm – went under.

GFG, which employs around 35,000 people globally, is being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office over suspected fraudulent trading and money laundering, including its financing arrangements with Greensill. GFG, which denies all allegations of fraud, is co-operating with the probe.