Tata Steel to sell UK plant to Liberty House in deal worth £100m

Tata Steel (NSE:TATASTEEL) has agreed to sell its speciality steel business to Liberty House in a deal worth £100 million, securing 1,700 UK jobs.

The deal between Tata Steel’s UK arm and Liberty House is part of the Indian steel giant’s attempts to restructure its European operations. Still subject to regulatory clearances, if it is given the go ahead the deal will maintain around 1,700 jobs throughout South Yorkshire and the North of England.

The speciality steel division is one of the world’s biggest suppliers for the aerospace industry, with a customer base stretching across the automotive and oil and gas sectors including Rolls-Royce and Boeing.

Bimlendra Jha, CEO of Tata Steel UK, commented on Thursday’s announcement:

“This is good news for the speciality steels and for Tata Steel’s core business in the U.K. For speciality steels, which is largely independent of our European strip products supply chain, this is an important step forward in securing a future for the business under a new ownership.”

The deal also creates a more “sustainable” future for Tata Steel’s biggest plant in the UK, based in Port Talbot. Tata agreed a deal with union chiefs in December which saved 8,000 jobs at the plant in Wales, after Tata put the plant up for sale. Tata Steel employs around 9,000 people in Britain, around half of them based in Port Talbot.

Jha added, “Like our former Scunthorpe-based long product business which we sold last year, we will be handing over a business which has been transformed following difficult decisions to structure and re-focus on higher value markets. Employees, trade unions and the management team have worked incredibly hard at speciality steels to improve its performance and I am delighted to say that the business in now on an improvement track which will enable it to thrive in the future.”

Shares in Tata Steel are currently trading down 2.20 percent at 460.30 (1634GMT).