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Founded | 1992 |
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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.
LHG was founded by Sanjeev Gupta in 1992.[ citation needed ]
LHG, together with the SIMEC Group, part of the GFG Alliance, purchased the Lochaber aluminium smelter plant as well as the Laggan Dam from Rio Tinto in November 2016. [7]
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. [8]
In July 2017, LHG purchased South Australian steelmaker Arrium [9] which was rebadged LibertyOneSteel for the first year of ownership and is now Liberty Steel. [10]
In October 2019, GFG Alliance promised to merge its steel assets into Liberty Steel Group by year end. [11]
In 2020, LHG received European Union approval to purchase the Duffel, Belgium plant of aluminium smelter operator Aleris which cleared the way for the purchase of Aleris by Novelis. [12]
On 19 February 2021 ThyssenKrupp (TK) ended discussions with Liberty Steel, which had proposed to take over the former's steel unit. [13] The TK plant at Duisburg Germany was valued by the owner at €1.5 billion but TK posted a €960 million loss in 2020 and Liberty sought to dispossess TK for no or reverse payment. [13]
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. The Swiss bankers are 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. [14]
On 2 April 2021, Gupta claimed that none of its plants would close under his watch as he raced 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. [15] In April 2021, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng rejected a request to bail LSG out. [16] In February 2022, HM Revenue & Customs sought winding up petitions against four LSG subsidiaries. [17]
Fort William is a town in Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands, located on the eastern shore of Loch Linnhe. At the 2011 census, Fort William had a population of 10,459, making it the second largest settlement in both the Highland council area, and the whole of the Scottish Highlands; only the city of Inverness has a larger population.
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
The Aditya Birla Group (ABG) is an Indian multinational Fortune 500 company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The group has a presence in 36 nations. As of March 2023, the company's revenue is worth $65 billion and derives over 50% of its revenue from its global operations.
Hindalco Industries Limited an Indian aluminium and copper manufacturing company, is a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group. Its headquarters are at Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Tata Steel Europe Ltd. was a steelmaking company headquartered in London, England, with its main operations in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The company was created in 2007, when Tata Group took over the British-Dutch Corus Group.
Novelis Inc. is an American industrial aluminum company, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is an independent subsidiary of multinational aluminium and copper manufacturing company Hindalco Industries. Novelis is a producer of rolled aluminum and an aluminum recycler. The company serves customers in sectors including beverage cans, automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics, construction, foil and packaging.
Arrium was an Australian mining and materials company, employing nearly 10,000 workers, that went into voluntary administration in 2016 with debts of more than $2 billion. In 2017 it was acquired by British-owned Liberty House Group.
Aleris Corporation was an American aluminum rolled products producer, based in Beachwood, Ohio. The company had approximately 5,000 employees globally as of mid 2015.
Jay Hambro is a British businessman in the mining, energy, steel and commodity sectors. He is the founder of Verdigris Strategic, a long-term investor and business transformation specialist.
The Whyalla Steelworks is a fully integrated steelworks and the only manufacturer of rail in Australia. Iron ore is mined in the Middleback Range to feed the steelworks, resulting in the distribution of finished steel products of over 90 different grades. It occupies a 1,000 ha site on the shore of False Bay, Spencer Gulf and is the largest employer in Whyalla, South Australia.
The Lochaber hydroelectric scheme is a hydroelectric power generation project constructed in the Lochaber area of the western Scottish Highlands after the First World War. Like its predecessor at Kinlochleven, it was intended to provide electricity for aluminium production, this time at Fort William, a little further north. It is still in operation.
Caparo plc is a British company involved mainly in the steel industry, primarily in the design, manufacturing and marketing of steel and niche engineering products.
Sanjeev Gupta is an Indian-born British businessman, and the founder of Liberty House Group. He is the CEO and chairman of GFG Alliance, an international conglomerate that operates primarily in the steel and mining industries. Following the collapse of Greensill Capital in 2021, Sanjeev Gupta has been under scrutiny for his ties to the failed company, which involved opaque financing and sales invoices that Greensill's administrator has been unable to verify.
The Clydebridge Steelworks, also known as Clydebridge Works, is a steel works in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
SIMEC Group Ltd is a British international energy and natural resources business focused on resources, sustainable power, infrastructure, and commodities trading. In 2016 it had an annual turnover of almost USD2.5 billion and net assets of USD350 million. It is part of the Gupta Family Group ("GFG") Alliance, owned by members of the Gupta family, which had a combined turnover of more than USD13 billion and combined net assets of more than USD2.3 billion. Its activities span renewable energy generation, mining, shipping, and commodities trading.
Gupta Family Group Alliance is an international group of businesses associated with businessman Sanjeev Gupta and the British Gupta family. Collectively, companies in the alliance are involved in mining, industry and trading.
Greensill Capital was a financial services company based in the United Kingdom and Australia. It focused on the provision of supply chain financing and related services. The company was founded in 2011 by Lex Greensill. It filed for insolvency protection on 8 March 2021.
Alexander David "Lex" Greensill is an Australian businessman best known for being the founder of Greensill Capital, a company focused on supply chain finance and derivative financial products that on 8 March 2021 filed for insolvency protection and faced legal scrutiny.