Steel company sued over unpaid debt

Beleaguered Liberty Steel is being sued by competitor Tata Steel over claims of unpaid debts.

Reports state the action relates to missed payments that were part of the £100m takeover deal in 2017 for Tata’s speciality steels business, which led Liberty’s owner Sanjeev Gupta to named the “saviour of steel”.

This is the latest challenge for Liberty Steel which which has operations in Rotherham, Stocksbridge, Motherwell, Newport and Hartlepool, which was left seeking financial support following the collapse of Greensill Capital, one of the UK’s largest speciality banks and a major provider of finance to the business.

Last month it was announced that 5,000 jobs were at risk as a result of the funding provider going into administration, with the government rejecting a request to approve an emergency £170m bailout.

According to reports in the Daily Telegraph Tata has launched proceedings against Liberty Speciality Steels, Liberty House Group PTE and Speciality Steel UK. A spokesman for the firm commented: “This is an active court case and as a result we are not making any further comment.”