Metals Trader Completes Acquisition of Scottish Plate Mills
04/28/2016 - Metals trading firm Liberty House has closed on its acquisition of two Tata Steel plate mills in Scotland, the firm has announced.
“We now look forward to continuing to work with local management and the workforce to rebuild these great businesses in the months ahead. We’re very grateful for the valuable support of the Scottish government and the trade unions in concluding this deal,” said executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta in a statement.
Through the deal, Tata sold its Dalzell and Clydebridge facilities to the Scottish government, which turned around and sold them to Liberty House. Tata had planned to close the facilities after its European long products business decided to stop making plate, but the government intervened and helped preserve the operations until a buyer could be found.
Liberty House is building a portfolio of steelmaking assets. It restarted a mothballed rolling mill in Wales last year and is looking at relighting the facility’s meltshop. Liberty also is considering whether to make an offer for other Tata Steel assets in the United Kingdom.
Tata put its U.K. business up for sale, announcing in March that it no longer saw a way to operate profitably there. Tata’s U.K assets include the integrated Port Talbot works, the country’s largest steelmaking plant.
They key to finding a buyer will be to first address Tata Steel U.K.’s GBP15 billion in pension liabilities, Tata Steel U.K. chief executive Bimlendra Jha told members of the U.K. parliament on Thursday.
“A number of the potential buyers have said that (they) won’t have much interest if (they) have to take over the current pension plan as it is,” Jha said, according to The Guardian newspaper.
“It’s a very big plan, it’s expensive compared to today’s plans, and it’s not unreasonable for many buyers to say: ‘Look we’re interested in the assets but this would be an issue,’” he said.
Jha also said the company intends to sell the business as a whole because splitting it up would destabilize the pension plan. He said that if Tata carved out Port Talbot in a sale, they’d lose pension contributions from more than 4,000 workers.
“We would not deal with somebody saying leave alone Port Talbot and give us the rest. That is not a solution that’s acceptable,” Jha said.
Through the deal, Tata sold its Dalzell and Clydebridge facilities to the Scottish government, which turned around and sold them to Liberty House. Tata had planned to close the facilities after its European long products business decided to stop making plate, but the government intervened and helped preserve the operations until a buyer could be found.
Liberty House is building a portfolio of steelmaking assets. It restarted a mothballed rolling mill in Wales last year and is looking at relighting the facility’s meltshop. Liberty also is considering whether to make an offer for other Tata Steel assets in the United Kingdom.
Tata put its U.K. business up for sale, announcing in March that it no longer saw a way to operate profitably there. Tata’s U.K assets include the integrated Port Talbot works, the country’s largest steelmaking plant.
They key to finding a buyer will be to first address Tata Steel U.K.’s GBP15 billion in pension liabilities, Tata Steel U.K. chief executive Bimlendra Jha told members of the U.K. parliament on Thursday.
“A number of the potential buyers have said that (they) won’t have much interest if (they) have to take over the current pension plan as it is,” Jha said, according to The Guardian newspaper.
“It’s a very big plan, it’s expensive compared to today’s plans, and it’s not unreasonable for many buyers to say: ‘Look we’re interested in the assets but this would be an issue,’” he said.
Jha also said the company intends to sell the business as a whole because splitting it up would destabilize the pension plan. He said that if Tata carved out Port Talbot in a sale, they’d lose pension contributions from more than 4,000 workers.
“We would not deal with somebody saying leave alone Port Talbot and give us the rest. That is not a solution that’s acceptable,” Jha said.
