Having expressed interest to take over Tata Steel’s loss-making asset in UK, Sanjeev Gupta, the promoter of Liberty Group, has to now convince the UK Government that he has the financial backing and wherewithal to deliver something that the Tata’s could not after investing billions of dollars before giving up on its effort.

Besides Liberty House, Excalibur Steel UK is also shown interest to bid for Tata Steel UK. Excalibur is led by Stuart Wilkie, the head of Tata’s British strip steel business.

Liberty House and Excalibur appear to be the only two credible interested parties in Tata Steel UK.

Liberty, which has tied up with Australian bank Macquarie for financial backing, is expected to submit its bids today.

The ability of Gupta, who is known for taking over struggling steel making business and turning it around, will be put to test.

To start with, 44-year-old metal tycoon Gupta might have got his strategy right by setting up a team led by former Tata Steel executive Jon Bolton, who until last year was heading the European Long Products business.

He joined Liberty House last month to spearhead Liberty’s steel businesses in Scotland, which was bought from Tatas in a deal involving the Scottish government.

Gupta has to modify his earlier plans to shut the blast furnace at Port Talbot and covert it into an electric arc furnace to make steel by recycling rather than using iron ore.

Pension scheme Tata Steel’s hunt for a buyer to save the British business could be hampered by the firm’s £15 billion pension scheme, which has a deficit of £485 million.

It has over 130,000 savers who are entitled to pension. Tata Steel has agreed with the trustees to eliminate the shortfall completely by 2026.

Sent to England at the age of 12, Gupta never returned to India.

He worked briefly for his father’s business selling bicycles in Turkey before accepting an offer to study economics at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Even while in college, Gupta’s acumen for business led him to sell chemical products to Nigeria and generate turnover of £1 million a day.

After graduating in 1995, he began trading commodities around the world. His business interest are always intertwined with that of his father PK Gupta’s in steel, shipping, power and commodities.

For instance, when Liberty invested in a steel-making venture in South Wales, PK’s Simec bought the adjacent power plant to supply power to the mills.

Gupta met his wife Linda who was treasurer of one of his businesses and they have three children.

Today, the commodities trading firm Liberty House has a turnover of about $6.5 billion and employs 2,000 people globally.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW