Seven suitors circling for Tata’s UK operations
TATA STEEL has revealed that seven bidders are in the running to buy its UK operations, all of which are interested in the whole of the loss-making business.
The sale includes Port Talbot, the UK’s largest steelworks, as well as large sites at Newport and Rotherham. Tata said it was not considering offers for parts of it.
Tata employs 11,000 people around the UK, with more than 4,000 of these at the Port Talbot steelworks.
In addition, the Indian-owned group employs more than 600 people in the West Midlands at its sites in Wednesfield, Wednesbury, Walsall and Warwick.
Tata’s Scunthorpe operation has already been sold to investment firm Greybull Capital for a nominal £1 and reports suggest the investor is one of the bidders for the rest of the group.
According to national reports, Tata Steel UK received letters of intent from potential bidders last week, and that they have now been taken forward to the next stage of the sale process.
They include Liberty House and a team from within Tata Steel, which is preparing a management buy-out and has set up its bid through a newco called Excalibur Steel UK.
German steel-making group ThyssenKrupp is also understood to be among the interested parties.
ThyssenKrupp has operations throughout the UK, including a large materials site in Cradley Heath and an aerospace business in Coventry.
A statement from Tata said: “As previously announced, it is Tata Steel Europe’s primary intention to assess expressions of interest for the whole of Tata Steel’s UK business.
“The seven expressions of interest being immediately taken forward are on this basis. Expressions of interest for parts of the UK business are not being taken forward at this point.”
The government has 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.
Meanwhile, a group of specialist metals producers behind start-up company Albion Steel, led by Sheffield Forgemasters chairman Tony Pedder, has said it has been advised by Tata that its expression of interest in the Tata Steels Speciality Steels business is not being pursued.
Dr Rod Beddows, director at Albion Steel “This is disappointing as the Albion Steel proposal could provide a robust long-term outlook for the Tata Steels Speciality Steels business and a new, unique and economically viable model for the manufacture of strip steel within the UK.
“Albion Steel remains interested in developing its offer and is hopeful of looking at possible ways of working with any of the other bidders for the Tata Steel UK business if that is helpful in terms of giving a sustainable overall outcome.”
