Tata Steel UK to sell speciality Steels at 100 million pound

Tata Steel UK has signed a definitive sale agreement to sell its Specialty Steels business to Liberty House Group for a total consideration of  £100 million.

The sale agreement covers several South Yorkshire-based assets including the electric arc steelworks and bar mill at Rotherham, the steel purifying facility at Stocksbridge and a mill in Brinsworth, as well as service centres in Bolton and Wednesbury, the UK, and in Suzhou and Xi’an, China, Specialty Steels directly employs about 1,700 people making steels for the aerospace, automotive and the oil and gas industries, Tata Steel said.

The parties will also be working to complete consultation with employees and the transfer of supplier and customer contracts. Tata Steel and Liberty House Group have worked constructively together to finalise the agreement. Tata Steel UK is currently consulting with its employees on a number of proposals that would structurally reduce risks and help secure a more sustainable future for its wider UK business. It is also in discussions with the British Steel Pension Scheme trustee and the Pension Regulator to develop a structural solution for its UK pension scheme in the coming months, the Indian steel major said. Tata Steel has invested  £1.5 billion in its UK business since acquiring Corus in 2007.