New directors hired to restructure steel company

LIBERTY Steel has hired a team of specialist directors to its board to accelerate the group’s overhaul and refinancing after its backer Greensill Capital went bust.

The company said the four new directors will make up a new restructuring and transformation committee, which will be given independence to restructure Liberty and either fix or sell underperforming divisions.

Greensill was the largest lender to steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG

Alliance – the parent company of Liberty Steel – and its failure put in jeopardy some 5,000 jobs in the UK.

Liberty Steel employs around 200 at Liberty Steel Newport and Liberty Steel Tredegar. Mr Gupta’s firms employ 5,000 in the UK and 30,000 globally.

It also has an interest in the Uskmouth Power Station, which is seeking to raise investment to move to biomass energy generation to supply the adjoining Liberty Steel Newport plant, where last year it announced 70 redundancies.

Liberty said the director appointments mark a “step forward” in its response to the Greensill collapse.

It said: “This restructuring, combined with the continuing strength in steel and iron ore markets, will present a solid basis for the future of Liberty.”

The committee will work with the board and advisers to “negotiate an amicable solution with Greensill’s administrators and stakeholders which protects value and provides the best outcome for all stakeholders”.

It gave assurances that cash is being managed prudently across the group and that “good progress” is being made on the refinancing.

The new committee will be led by Jeffery Stein as chief restructuring officer, Jeff Kabel as chief transformation officer, Iain Hunter as chief governance officer and Deepak Sogani as Liberty’s chief financial officer.