Liberty Steel and Credit Suisse (CS) are set to formalize a standstill agreement for the former’s Australian business–Liberty Primary Metals to repay the full refinancing amount to CS.
The company’s restructuring and transformation committee is also discussing the phased restructuring of its UK businesses for the same objective, it noted on Monday. The committee is looking for interested investors and there was speculation that India’s JSW Steel was throwing its hat in the ring last week. JSW, however, denied these reports to the media on Monday.
Under the restructuring plan, Liberty Steel plans to sell its non-core aerospace and special alloys steel plants in Stockbridge in the UK to retrofit electric arc furnaces (EAFs) at its Rotherham facility to produce 2mn mt of recycled green steel.
The company’s other non-core UK businesses slated for restructuring include Liberty Aluminum Technologies, Liberty Pressing Solutions, its narrow strip mill at Brinsworth, and Performance Steels at West Bromwich. While a formal sale agreement is already in place for the first two, Liberty Steel will launch a sales process for the latter two downstream plants and its Stockbridge unit shortly.
Liberty Steel hasn’t disclosed the sale proceeds figures or dates of these deals that may potentially protect UK steel jobs and divert resources to sustainable steel production.