Javed in talks with Tata Steel

Tata Steel’s Indian board is meeting to finalise its shortlist of bidders for its  UK steel operations. Sajid Javid  the Business Secretary, flew into Mumbai for talks with a senior  management of Tata Steel. The Indian conglomerate is edging closer to a sale of its UK steel business, did not rule out the idea of keeping hold of its UK assets, which it bought eight years ago under the £6.7bn takeover of the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus. The company is under pressure from the British government to stay, but Tata has a long list of demands it would expect  to be met before it would proceed, including action against cheap China steel dumping and big cuts to energy bills.

Tata has received six bids by yesterday night including an offer from Liberty House, the commodities trading group and a management buyout team called Excalibur and an offer of providing equity from the British government and debt financing to potential buyers and is in talks with the unions and trustees of the British Steel pension fund to try to reduce the scheme’s liabilities. Greybull Capital, an investment firm, is understood to have expressed an interest in remaining in the process while it is concentrating on completing a deal to acquire the Tata’s steelworks in Scunthorpe.

The other interested parties  were JSW Steel of India, Hebel Iron and Steel Group of China , Leeds-based private  equity fund Endless and Wilbur Ross, a  US investor famous for turnarounds.

About 40, 000 jobs are at risk after Tata announced last week it would sell its UK Steel business, including the blast furnaces at Port Talbot, the biggest steelworks in the country.