Shock as Jingye withdraws bid to buy British Steel

 Jingye Group, a Chinese company had pulled out of the running to buy British Steel, thawing efforts to rescue the stricken manufacturer and safeguard thousand of UK jobs.

 Earlier Jingye Group submitted an offer for the entire British Steel Uk’s second largest steelmaker, which collapsed into insolvency two months ago after it s request for a £30m state bailout was rejected .

 Jingye based in China’s Hebel province, also owns hotels and medicines business alongside its main steelmaking.

Jingye whose identity as a bidder was not publicly known until now, had reconfirmed its interest in British Steel even last week.

Greg Clark, the Business Secretary who flew to China, India and Turkey to talk to prospective buyers recently.

Ministers and trade unions want British Steel to be sold as a single going concern.

It’s Scunthorpe steelworks in Lincolnshire used to employ over 5, 000 workers, also British Steel has several smaller factories in Northern England and continental Europe that turn raw materials into products like rail tracks and construction beams.

The fear of selling small factories as a piecemeal could lead to the closure of the Scunthorpe plant, which supplies them ,

 Greybull Capital the private equity firm under whose ownership British Steel failed, want s to regain control of several smaller plants, b u they faced criticism over its role and there is likely to be opposition to any attmepts to cherry pick assets.