Liberty Steel Group
 | |
| Founded | 1992 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Sanjeev Gupta |
| Headquarters | , England |
Key people | Jon Bolton (Chief Executive) |
| Products | Steel Aluminium Scrap metal Engineering |
Number of employees | 4,500 (2017)[1] |
| Website | www |
Liberty Steel Group Holdings UK Ltd (LSG), which is also referred to as Liberty House or Liberty House UK, is a British industrial and metals company founded in the United Kingdom in 1992 by industrialist Sanjeev Gupta. It is headquartered in London, England,[2] and has offices in Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The holding company of Liberty Steel, Liberty House Group PTE Ltd is based in Singapore.[3][4] The company focuses on ferrous and non-ferrous metal trading, metals recycling, steel and aluminium production, and engineering products and services.[5][6] Gupta controls it through his vehicle GFG Alliance.
History
[edit]Liberty House was founded by Sanjeev Gupta in 1992, when he was a student at Cambridge University.[7]
In 2013, Liberty House Group was a surprise buyer for a steel mill in Newport, South Wales, Mir Steel UK, that had got into financial difficulties. Companies owned by Gupta and his family went on to make further acquisitions in the UK.[8] Together with the SIMEC Group, part of the GFG Alliance, Liberty purchased the Lochaber aluminium smelter plant as well as the Laggan Dam from Rio Tinto in November 2016.[9] In February 2017, LHG agreed to purchase the specialty steel division of Tata Steel Europe for £100 million. The purchase included the division's facilities in Rotherham, Stocksbridge, and Brinsworth in South Yorkshire and Wednesbury in the West Midlands.[10]
In July 2017, LHG purchased South Australian steelmaker and iron ore miner Arrium,[11] which owned Whyalla Steelworks but had entered voluntary administration in April 2016.[12][11] The company was rebadged LibertyOneSteel for the first year of ownership, later being renamed Liberty Steel.[13]
In October 2019, GFG Alliance promised to merge its steel assets into Liberty Steel Group by year end.[14][needs update]
In 2020, LHG received European Union approval to purchase the plant of aluminium smelter operator Aleris in Duffel, Belgium, which cleared the way for the purchase of Aleris by Novelis.[15]
On 19 February 2021 ThyssenKrupp ended discussions with Liberty Steel, which had proposed to take over the former's steel unit.[16] ThyssenKrupp had sought €1.5 billion for its steel assets but, given ThyssenKrupp's €960 million EBIT loss in 2020, Liberty had sought to acquire the unit for a reverse payment.[16]
On 31 March 2021 Credit Suisse filed insolvency proceedings against Liberty Commodities (a LHG subsidiary) in a London court. The action was brought by a unit of another bank, Citigroup, which was acting under instruction from Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse were on the hook for a $10 billion fund, part of which was invested in Greensill Capital which had placed $3.6 billion in LHG parent company GFG, part of which had funnelled down to LCL. The balance sheet of Credit Suisse would absorb significant damage as a result.[further explanation needed] [17]
On 2 April 2021, Gupta claimed that none of its plants would close under his watch, as he tried to refinance his business after the collapse of financial backer Greensill. Liberty Steel had 3,000 employees, while GFG Alliance had another 2,000 in other UK metals and engineering businesses.[18] In April 2021, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng rejected a request to bail LSG out.[19] In February 2022, HM Revenue & Customs sought winding-up petitions against four LSG subsidiaries.[20]
In November 2024, Liberty Steel initiated a restructuring plan for its UK-based Speciality Steel division (SSUK) in a bid to reduce its significant debt load. Despite potential impacts on creditors, it was reported that the plan would not affect the 1,500 employees of SSUK.[21][needs update]
References
[edit]- ^ Monaghan, Angela (2 May 2017). "Tata deal with Liberty House saves 1,700 UK steel jobs". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
- ^ "Company Overview of Liberty House Ltd". Bloomberg News. Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
- ^ "Privacy Policy".
- ^ "LIBERTY Steel Group appoints global leadership team and independent board members" (PDF) (Press release). Liberty House Group. 15 April 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
- ^ "Liberty House – A global industrial and metals group". www.libertyhousegroup.com. Retrieved 30 May 2017.
- ^ "Our Locations". Liberty Steel Group. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
- ^ Evans, Simon (5 July 2017). "How Liberty House and Sanjeev Gupta clinched the Arrium deal". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
- ^ Paul, Chrystan (21 March 2018). "Why Sanjeev Gupta May Just Be The World's Most Ambitious Industrialist". Forbes. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
- ^ Tovey, Alan (23 November 2016). "Rio Tinto to sell Scottish aluminium smelter to Liberty for £330m". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
- ^ "Tata sells speciality steel to Liberty House for £100m". Financial Times. 9 February 2017. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
- ^ a b "Whyalla steelmaker Arrium to be sold to British company Liberty House". ABC News. 5 July 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
- ^ Janda, Michael (6 April 2016). "Arrium enters voluntary administration, Grant Thornton appointed". ABC News. Retrieved 19 February 2025.
- ^ Paul, Chrystan (21 March 2018). "Why Sanjeev Gupta May Just Be The World's Most Ambitious Industrialist". Forbes.
- ^ Bone, Carrie (30 October 2019). "Liberty Steel assets to merge into single global group, to adopt neutral carbon business strategy". Euromoney Global Limited. Fastmarkets.
- ^ "Novelis closes on Aleris purchase". Argus Media. 14 April 2020.
- ^ a b Rivituso, Christopher (19 February 2021). "ThyssenKrupp ends talks with Liberty Steel over potential steel unit takeover". MetalMiner.
- ^ Makortoff, Kalyeena (31 March 2021). "Credit Suisse aims at wind-up orders for Gupta's Liberty arm". The Guardian.
- ^ "Liberty Steel boss: Plants won't shut on my watch". BBC News. 2 April 2021.
- ^ Liberty Steel: Kwarteng defends rejecting request for £170m bailout BBC News 13 April 2021
- ^ Four Gupta steel firms face winding up orders BBC News 10 February 2022
- ^ "Steel tycoon Gupta heads for court to restructure UK arm". Sky News. Retrieved 11 November 2024.