Liberty signs £100m deal for speciality steel business
Industrials group Liberty House has acquired Tata Steel UK’s speciality steels business for £100m.
The long-awaited announcement saves 1,700 jobs directly and more in the supply chain.
Liberty said it had undertaken an “extensive” due diligence period, after it and Tata had entered exclusive discussions in November 2016.
The deal will bring Liberty’s staff numbers to 4,000, making it one of the largest steel and engineering employers in the UK.
Tata’s Speciality Steels, which makes high-value steels for the aerospace, automotive and oil and gas industries has manufacturing facilities in Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Brinsworth in South Yorkshire and Wednesbury in the West Midlands, as well as service centres located in Bolton, and in China.
The business has the capability to make around 1.1m tonnes of liquid steel per year from recycled scrap, melted in two electric arc furnaces at Rotherham.
This steel feeds downstream casting, re-melting and rolling processes, producing a range of high-value steels.
Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the Liberty House Group said: “I am proud that we are acquiring a world-class business with a very skilled workforce and broad range of high-value products. It is one of only a handful of such operations in the world and I am confident it will flourish within our group.
“We will now be able to melt scrap steel to create high-value-added products and I hope that, in due course, we will do so using renewable power.”
Business Secretary Greg Clark said: “Acquiring Tata’s Speciality Steels business in South Yorkshire and West Midlands, which manufactures high quality steel for some of the UK’s world leading industries such as aerospace and automotive is a great opportunity for Liberty House.
“I look forward to hearing more about their expansion plans which secures skilled jobs at the business into the future.
“We want to work with the steel industry on proposals to transform and upgrade their sector as part of the modern Industrial Strategy so we can build on our strengths and extend excellence into the future.”
