UK firm buys Australian steelmaker Arrium

SYDNEY: London-based GFG Alliance has bought Australia’s Arrium, the miner and steelmaking giant said on Wednesday, ending a tussle with a Korean consortium over the company after it went into voluntary administration last year.

The cash-strapped firm, formerly known as OneSteel when it was spun-off from BHP Billiton in 2000, had struggled with bad debt on the back of plunging commodity prices.

“The administrators and sale advisers Morgan Stanley decided the GFG Alliance offer was superior to the conditional offer of the Korean consortium with whom we were negotiating,” Arrium Administrator Mark Mentha said in a statement.

He added that the alliance, owned by Britain’s Gupta family, had submitted a modified offer late on Tuesday.

No further details, including the bid price, were released. Arrium had owed more than Aus$2.0 billion ($1.5 billion) before its shares were suspended and reported a full-year loss of Aus$1.9 billion in 2014/15.

The agreement is subject to approval by Arrium’s committee of creditors and the government’s Foreign Investment Review Board, with the sale expected to be completed late next month.

The deal ended 15 months of uncertainty, particularly for the employees of Arrium’s steelworks in the South Australian city of Whyalla, and was warmly welcomed by federal and state politicians. — AFP