HMRC ‘withdraws’ winding up petitions against steel tycoon’s companies

Steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has reportedly struck a new deal with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to repay tens of millions of pounds of tax liabilities.

Sky News says HMRC has withdrawn a series of winding-up petitions against parts of Gupta’s GFG Alliance conglomerate – which owns Liberty Steel – after revised proposals were tabled by the businessman.

Had these petitions been enforced, they could have plunged some of Gupta’s most important UK operations, including those at Hartlepool, Rotherham and Stockbridge, into administration, affecting around 2,000 jobs.

GFG Alliance has this afternoon confirmed, it has made “significant progress with creditors” including the withdrawal of the HMRC petitions.

Its statement adds that further funding injected into LIBERTY Steel UK to secure continued operations, while continued progress has been made to restructure the Group to focus on its core businesses.

The conglomerate says strong international steel and aluminium markets have supported “robust” performance.

Jeffrey Kabel, chief transformation officer at Liberty Steel Group, said: “We’re pleased to report good further progress in our negotiations with creditors including UK’s HMRC.

“We are committed to repaying all creditors and this is an important step in enabling us to restructure and achieve long-term refinancing.

“Our core international businesses have continued to generate strong returns and achieve record production levels despite the sky-high energy costs facing energy-intensive industries across the UK and Europe.

“We will continue to progress our efforts to refocus and refinance our operations for the long-term.”

Gupta has been working to keep GFG operational following the collapse of Greensill Capital, its main lender. He had sought £170m from the Government, but this was turned down by ministers.