More than 500 West Midlands jobs affected by Liberty Steel sell off
More than 500 jobs are at risk in the West Midlands from the planned sell off of part of Sanjeev Gupta's business empire.
They include more than 200 jobs at steel plants in West Bromwich and Kidderminster.
Liberty Steel, part of GFG Alliance, yesterday announced it was looking for a buyer for several UK plants.
They include steel strip manufacturer Liberty Performance Steels in Albion Road, West Bromwich, where 167 work and Liberty Aluminium Technologies, which produces metal castings for the automotive industry, in Kidderminster where 55 are employed.
Another 129 work for LAT in Coventry and 225 in the same city for Liberty Pressing Solutions.
Altogether 576 West Midlands jobs are affected.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has not ruled out nationalising the steel plants owned by Mr Gupta's under-pressure business.
A day after Liberty Steel's parent, GFG Alliance, said it plans to stave off problems sparked by the collapse of a major lender with a new refinancing deal, Mr Kwarteng said that there will likely be interest in the plants.
"The issue that Liberty had was to do with financial engineering, the opaque bit, if you like, of GFG, the leverage, the finance, the debt they had incurred ... Without that I think there is a healthy interest in the assets and I think they have a viable future," the minister told MPs on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee on Tuesday.
"I don't rule anything in or out, but I think that nationalisation – of all the options – is the least likely," he said.
Mr Gupta is looking for a buyer for several UK plants, which together employ more than 1,500 people including Stocksbridge at Sheffield.
It is a major step for his plans to refinance the business, which was thrown into turmoil after the collapse of Greensill Capital which helped finance Mr Gupta's expansion across the world.
The Serious Fraud Office is now investigating GFG and some of its links to Greensill.
Liberty also owns Liberty Speciality Steels Bright Bar in All Saints Road, Wednesbury, where around 100 workers are employed. It is not among those lined up for sale.
It hopes it can focus on scaling up its plant in Rotherham to make two million tonnes of green steel.
