Caparo saviour set to bid for Tata Steel
THE saviour of Black Country-based steel group Caparo could be set to come to the rescue of the area’s beleaguered steel industry for the second time in six months.
Liberty House has confirmed it is to submit a formal bid to buy Tata Steel’s UK assets.
Liberty House, owned by the Gupta family, purchased the majority of Caparo’s assets in a deal with administrators PwC last December. The move saved the jobs of hundreds of workers.
It could now be set to hand a similar lifeline to the hundreds of people employed by Tata Steel in the Black Country.
The Indian-owned group employs 450 people at its operation in Wednesfield, while it has a further 111 at bases in Wednesbury and Walsall, while there are a further 50 at an operation in Warwick.
Tata only invested £3m into the Steel Profiling Centre, at Steelpark in Wednesfield, in 2014.
The centre transforms steel plate into a multitude of shaped and machined components, from high-volume production runs for off-road vehicle wheels and booms for earth-moving equipment, to large one-off components for construction projects and specialist engineering applications.
Reports over the Bank Holiday weekend said Liberty House was planning to submit a letter of intent to Tata notifying it of its intention to bid.
The bid comes after the government announced it would be prepared to support the purchase of any or all of the Tata operation by taking a 25% stake in the business and making hundreds of millions of incentives available.
Liberty is understood to be being advised by several former Tata Steel executives on the deal, with finance being provided by Australian investment back Macquarie, the bank which funded amongst other schemes, the M6 Toll.
However, Liberty is not the only interested partner.
A team from within Tata Steel is thought to be preparing a management buy-out and has set up its bid through a newco called Excalibur Steel UK.
Tata employs 11,000 people around the UK, with more than 4,000 of these at the Port Talbot steelworks – its biggest plant.
In addition, its employs 2,172 at its operation in Yorkshire (Rotherham (1,235), Brinsworth (106) and Stocksbridge (831)), plus 727 at Shotton in Flintshire, and 578 in Corby.
