Tata Steel completes the Long products business to Greybull Capital

Tata Steel has completed the sale of its long products business to Greybull Capital, an investment firm, for a nominal £1 for the business, which makes products such a railway tracks and steel used in construction and preserved 4,400 UK jobs and revived the British Steel name.

The Sale includes the steelworks in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, and the long products business also includes sites in Teeside, Workington and York and employs 400 people in France.

Workers accepted a temporary 3 percent pay cut and changes to terms and conditions in April as part of the deal to salvage the business, which will be renamed British Steel, the brand formerly state-owned industry which disappeared in 1999 with the creation of Corus, which Tata bought in 2007.

Tata is yet to decide on its remaining UK assets, which employ about 11, 000 people and include the blast furnaces at Port Talbot in South Wales.

The UK government has offered to provide loans and guarantees to a buyer and has urged Tata to allow time for a deal to be done. Tata is also considering keeping the business in light of the government’s support package. Bimlendra Jha, Chief executive of Tata Steel UK said “ As a responsible seller, Tata Steel is delighted to have secured a buyer for this business and we hope that under Greybull Capital ownership, the business will continue the momentum of the improvement programme that has been initiated in the past 12 months.

Greybull said the long products business had returned to operating profit in the past two months by following a turnaround plan that included making higher value products.