Liberty House Group has acquired Tata Steel's North of England specialty steel business for £100 million, following up their acquisition of the company's Dalzell and Clydebridge plants in Lanarkshire for a nominal fee.
The business has 1700 employees and produces steel for the aviation, automotive and oil and gas industries.
The wider acquisition process began with Liberty looking at the Dalzell and Clydebridge steel works. The company then followed up with a ultimately unsuccessful bid for the Port Talbot steelworks.
In the case of Dalzell and Clydebridge an earlier bid by Greybull Capital (advised by Forsters) had been turned down as it did not guarantee the future of the plants.
The future of Tata's UK works has been a source of much political attention due to the threat to jobs in areas of the country where industry is increasingly scarce. This led to business secretary Sajid Javid announcing a package of Government support including financial incentives. As a result Tata Steel reversed its decision to pull out of the UK completely, securing for now the future of 11,000 jobs.
Sam Duke - Editor
Jurisdiction:
United Kingdom
Deal type:
Private acquisition
Practice area:
M&A
Industry sectors:
Industrials and manufacturing
Construction and materials