Tata Steel UK signs deal with Liberty House to sell speciality steel business for 100 million pounds

Steel major Tata Steel on Monday announced the signing of a Letter of Intent with Liberty House Group to enter into exclusive negotiations for the potential sale of its Speciality Steels business for an enterprise value of £100 million subject to due diligence and corporate approvals.  

Liberty House is owned by steel baron Sanjeev Gupta. 

As per a report in Economic Times, The Letter of Intent covers several South Yorkshire-based assets including the Rotherham electric arc steelworks, the steel purifying facility in Stocksbridge and a mill in Brinsworth as well as service centres in Bolton and Wednesbury, UK, and in Suzhou and Xi'an, China.

Speciality Steels employs about 1,700 people making steels for the aerospace, automotive and the oil & gas industries. 

In a statement, Bimlendra Jha, CEO of Tata Steel UK, said: "The Speciality Steels business is independent of the pan-European strip products supply chain and today's announcement is in line with the overall restructuring strategy of the UK portfolio.

This is an important step forward in seeking a future for Speciality Steels and we have reached this stage thanks to the efforts of employees, trade unions and management. We now look forward to working with Liberty on the due diligence and other wo .. 

Tata Steel UK has invested £1.5 billion of capital over the last nine years. The company's boards consider the technical feasibility and economic returns of investments when taking decisions, as well as their affordability.

The company is pursuing a transformation plan to create a sustainable future for its UK strip products business. The success of this plan is likely to influence decisions on future investments.