Liberty Steel Group’s $28m bid represents the preferred cash bid for Bayou Steel
The acquisition will be in alignment with Liberty Steel Group’s GREENSTEEL vision
Deal would boost Liberty Steel Group US productive capacity to 3 million tons per annum
Liberty plans upgrades to restore strategic asset before restarting steel making in 2021
Liberty Steel Group, part of the GFG Alliance, announces that it has been named preferred buyer for Bayou Steel Group, the US producer of structural steel and merchant bar which ceased operation and entered administration at the end of September 2019.
Subject to completion of a $28 million deal to acquire the business, Liberty has developed a plan to upgrade and modernise Bayou’s idled steel mill in LaPlace, Louisiana, with a view to re-starting its recycling operations in the second half of 2020 and steel making operations by 2021. The transaction is expected to close on January 31, 2020.
Bayou adds scale to Liberty’s US steel business, which includes existing operations in Illinois, Ohio, New Mexico and South Carolina. The group is pursuing a GREENSTEEL strategy of focusing on renewable sources of energy and recycled materials, with a view to moving towards carbon neutral steel production by 2030.
Commenting on the acquisition, Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman of GFG Alliance said: “We look forward to welcoming Bayou Steel into the GFG Alliance family. While the plant requires upgrades to be restarted competitively, we see good potential for the business. Bayou benefits from reliable access to supplies of recycled steel, competitive power prices and its own deep-water port.”
Read the full media release on the LIBERTY Steel Group website
Global industrial group GFG Alliance has appointed Neil Barrell as its first Group Chief Operating Officer (COO) following a year of expansion and transformation across its businesses.
Neil will take up the new role on 1 January 2020 from within the organisation, after joining GFG Alliance as the global head of integration and performance earlier this year.
Initially, Neil’s focus will be on bringing GFG Alliance’s Liberty Steel businesses across the globe into one consolidated Liberty Steel Group, which was launched by Sanjeev Gupta at the World Steel Dynamics conference in October. As part of this consolidation, GFG is committed to enhancing governance across its worldwide organisation, and to move towards broader financial transparency.
Neil will also have responsibility for business transformation and integration, operational improvement, asset performance, business intervention and restructuring across the wider GFG Alliance.
“The creation of a global COO role allows a sharper focus across the group on operational improvements and formalises the work Neil and his team are already leading on integration and performance,” Executive Chairman Sanjeev Gupta said.
“I’m delighted to be taking on this new role following an exciting year of transformation across the global group of businesses,” Neil Barrell said.
“Working towards the consolidation of Liberty Steel Group and ensuring we are making strides to reach our 2030 target of being carbon neutral will be among my initial priorities as I take up the role.”
Neil, 49, has many years’ senior management experience – including nine years at senior management level – leading businesses in steel, aluminium and the automotive sector. He joined GFG Alliance in June from international accounting and consultancy firm Grant Thornton, where he was a senior partner as head of UK manufacturing and industrials, and the firm’s global automotive leader.
At Grant Thornton, Neil led strategic reviews, acquisitions and optimisations for a variety of Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies, UK Government and private equity clients.
Sanjeev Gupta launches JAHAMA in Australia, GFG’s property development and management company
JAHAMA will unlock value across the significant property portfolio of GFG Alliance businesses
JAHAMA plans strategic partnership model to partner with other industrial businesses to co-create development opportunities
Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman of GFG Alliance, today announced the Australian launch of JAHAMA, the property development and management arm of GFG with a mandate to transform legacy industrial sites into innovative, environmentally sustainable employment and residential hubs of the future.
Mr Gupta said he was excited to launch JAHAMA in Australia to deliver benefits for GFG Alliances’ locally operated businesses and global portfolio of properties: “JAHAMA in Australia will apply the world’s best practice to strategic asset management for GFG’s property portfolio. This will create significant value for our businesses.”
JAHAMA has responsibility for managing more than 170 freehold and leasehold assets in Australia on behalf of GFG Alliance businesses. The portfolio covers more than 200 hectares, including both heavy and light industrial sites, and two strategic port locations. The freehold portfolio of assets is valued at over A$300m.
“We have an extraordinary portfolio of industrial property assets across every Australian State, with a powerful vision of how they can be transformed into vibrant assets with higher value uses through development partnerships in the years ahead,” Mr Gupta said.
“We plan for these sites to continue hosting our Australian manufacturing businesses into the future, but alongside the manufacturing operations, there is so much more we can do to deliver jobs and homes of the future with a sustainable outcome,” Mr Gupta said.
“We will evolve these assets into showcases of how sustainability and industry can develop in tandem to benefit the entire community. We will use this as a launch pad for JAHAMA, a global first for the business, to partner with other like-minded industry portfolios.
The strategic vision for the company will be led by JAHAMA’s Global Head of Strategy, and Australian Managing Director, Sydney-based Simonne Bailey, a property and construction executive who joined from Lendlease with more than 20 years of property experience. Her distinguished capabilities in developing innovative placemaking solutions and passion for delivering sustainable outcomes for our cities will create an exciting platform for JAHAMA here in Australia.
“JAHAMA has a clear vision and strategy to evolve the portfolio of assets from capital intensive single purpose properties to high performing assets that provide a range of benefits to GFG businesses and their communities”, Ms Bailey said.
“JAHAMA has the expertise to leverage GFG Alliance’s supply chain, technology and sustainability capabilities to bring a new approach to unlocking future value from the portfolio. This has significant potential to play a transformational role in their respective communities.
Internationally, JAHAMA manages a portfolio of properties across the United Kingdom, Europe, North America and Asia however Australia presents a unique opportunity.
“We see Australia as having a sophisticated forward-thinking property industry where we can work with established industry leaders in developing our vision for these assets. We hope to replicate this model globally,” Mr Gupta said.
Fund manager and Biodiversity Sensitive Urban Project specialist Nigel Sharp of Tiverton Rothwell Partners said: “We are looking forward to partnering JAHAMA in their journey towards delivering leading and innovative sustainable solutions for communities. It is exciting to reimagine property assets to unlock the potential of these sites delivering further value across the supply chain.”
About JAHAMA
JAHAMA is an international real estate and property management business which owns and operates a portfolio of properties in the UK, and manages assets within Europe, North America, Australia and Asia on behalf of businesses within the GFG Alliance.
The portfolio comprises industrial, office, leisure and hospitality, and agricultural assets, as well as strategically located ports.
JAHAMA approach management of the portfolio holistically as a responsible long-term owner and custodian, and looking to drive efficiencies in the portfolio as part of their asset evolution strategy which delivers social and environmental solutions for all stakeholders.
JAHAMA is a member of the Property Council of Australia and the Leading Sponsor of the Property Council of Australia’s Property Congress. GFG Australia is a member of the Australian Institute of Building.
In the United Kingdom, JAHAMA owns and operates over 150 industrial, office and leisure assets, and a large agricultural estate in the Scottish Highlands, under JAHAMA UK led by Dilip Awtani.
GFG Alliance, operates an integrated global model encompassing businesses in mining, energy generation, metals, engineering, and industry-based financial services, and through the operation of these businesses owns a substantial global property portfolio.
Liberty Steel Continental Europe, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, today announces that Pascal Genest is joining the company on 1 December 2019 as CEO of Liberty Ostrava, the largest fully integrated steel plant in the Czech Republic with more than three million tons of production capacity. Pascal will be taking over from Ashok Patil, the current CEO, who has been appointed Chief Financial Officer for Liberty Steel Continental Europe. Pascal and Ashok will carry out a comprehensive hand-over process.
Pascal has a wealth of experience in the steel sector globally having had fourteen years in senior executive positions within the industry, managing both growth and turnaround situations, most recently as CEO of the leading structural steel producer in the Gulf Cooperation Council. He has also worked in senior roles in the aluminium and Private Equity sectors.
Ashok’s new role will see him take leadership of the finance function across the Liberty Steel Continental European organisation as well as acting as a business partner to its CEO Jon Bolton and the wider commercial organisation, driving business development. Ashok has a wealth of experience in the steel sector having served in senior operational and finance roles in countries across Europe.
Read the full media release on the LIBERTY Steel Group website.
Liberty Steel Group, a member of the GFG Alliance, announces the appointment of V Ashok as its Chief Financial Officer with immediate effect, with responsibility for overseeing global financial reporting.
The appointment follows the recent decision to consolidate steel businesses within the GFG Alliance under one group structure with a presence in more than 10 countries, over 30,000 employees and a rolling capacity of 18 million tonnes of steel annually.
Mr Ashok will work with finance teams around the world to shape the finance structure, strategy and associated priorities of the Liberty Steel Group.
He comes into the role with over two decades of experience in finance, accounts and audit, most recently serving as Group Chief Financial Officer at Essar, a global investor in Energy, Infrastructure, Metals and Mining services.
Read the full media release on the LIBERTY Steel Group website
GFG Alliance is delighted to announce it has been awarded The French Chamber of Great Britain’s Franco-British Business Award for Sustainability. GFG was declared winner of the Sustainability Award yesterday evening at the event, hosted at the May Fair Hotel, London.
The twentieth edition of the Awards is held under the high patronage of the French Ambassador to the UK and the British Ambassador to France. The awards celebrate the excellence of French and British companies and their recent successes, in three categories: CSR, Start-up & SME, and Sustainability.
GFG’s GREENSTEEL AND GREENALUMINIUM visions were central to the successful award win. A panel of high-level business representatives comprised the jury, including board members of the French Chamber, past winners and sponsors of the event.
The panel of judges were impressed by GFG’s rationale for investing in the reindustrialisation of Britain and France and its commitment to developing integrated value chains, alongside our recently announced aim for our global steel business to be carbon neutral by 2030. Sustainability is at the core of GFG’s business model and values, in a way that is so fundamental it sets it apart from their competitors.
Speaking of the award GFG Alliance executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta said:
“We’re delighted to have received this award which marks a great step in our French journey. We have only been present in the French market for just over a year and a half and in that time have built an integrated value chain with sustainability at its core. For us sustainability means not only environmental responsibility but economic and social durability as well.
“Our plans to reindustrialise the UK and France depend on these three elements being in place – I’m very pleased to see that this resonated with the jury and very proud for our efforts to have been recognised in this way by our newly-found peers in the Franco-British community.”
GFG Alliance’s energy arm, SIMEC, has brought together a range of local businesses to highlight potential contract opportunities from the construction and operation of its 168MW Glenshero Wind Farm in the Highlands, should it be approved.
Around 30 people from mainly local suppliers attended SIMEC’s Meet the Buyer event at Liberty’s Aluminium Smelter in Fort William to hear more about the wind farm, which is likely to offer approximately £23m of contracts to Highlands-based businesses during construction.
Representatives of the Inverness and Lochaber chambers of commerce were joined by a variety of suppliers crossing the power generation, construction, engineering and leisure sectors.
Picture caption from left to right: Anders Jersby (Commercial Director Materials Processing Institute), Ben Houchen (Tees Valley Mayor), Dr Simon Pike (General Manager Liberty Powder Metals), Dan Frith (Manufacturing and Engineering Manager Liberty Powder Metals), and Andrew Home (CEO of K Home International) examine plans of the atomiser
Liberty, part of the GFG Alliance of industrial companies, has begun construction of a powder metals development facility in Teesside (UK) that will expand the group’s reach in specialist metals and, ultimately, into the emerging market for materials for 3D printing.
Representatives of Liberty Powder Metals, Atomising Systems Ltd (ASL) and Stockton-based K-Home International joined the Mayor of the Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, to celebrate the milestone at the Materials Processing Institute research and innovation campus where the facility will be based.
An initial £10m is being invested to set up the Liberty Powder Metals business including a state-of-the-art vacuum induction inert gas atomiser at its core.
The facility is designed to achieve the highest-quality stainless steel and superalloy powders, helping Liberty to enhance its status in a global market estimated to be worth £8bn a year.
Liberty Steel USA is to make a major capital investment in its liquid steel production facilities at Georgetown, South Carolina, to boost output substantially and secure the long-term future of the mill, which it re-opened just over a year ago.
The company, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s global GFG Alliance, plans to invest up to $25 million to install a modern electric arc furnace at the Georgetown mill and extensively improve the infrastructure of the mill’s melt shop.
Liberty has already invested significant sums to increase the versatility of its rolling mill at Georgetown, in order to serve key markets for wire rod in the south eastern United States.
Said Michael Setterdahl, CEO of Liberty Steel USA: “We have a very efficient rolling mill at Georgetown and we now want to put a world-class melt shop behind it so we can achieve our goal to become the leading supplier of wire rod to the region and secure the long-term future of the site.”
He explained that the capability of the ageing liquid steel producing plant at Georgetown was running significantly behind the capabilities of the more modern rolling mill, so a major upgrade is needed to ensure the melt shop can make billets competitively for the rolling mill to achieve its potential.
The company aims to increase wire rod output from the site to over 400,000 tons a year to serve customers across the region in sectors such as automotive and construction product manufacture, but in order to do so it needs to upgrade the melt shop to supply competitive high-quality billets.
Global metals industry engineering specialists Danieli have undertaken extensive surveys at the site over recent weeks in preparation for the project which is expected to include Danieli’s new energy-efficient Q-ONE technology.
Said Paolo Losso, President of Danieli Corporation of Pittsburgh, PA: “This is an exciting project that will transform the capability of this pivotal mill and we’re delighted to be working with Liberty to bring it about. We expect to finalise design work very shortly.”
Work to install the new arc furnace and upgrade melting and casting facilities is expected to take between six and nine months once permits are obtained, during which time Georgetown will roll billets sourced externally, including billets from its sister plant in Peoria, Illinois.
In addition to the installation of a new electric arc furnace, the investment project will include new electrical systems, improvements to water and natural gas supply and ancillary equipment to support improved melt shop operations, along with environmental permits for modifications to regulated processes. In addition, substantial structural upgrades, including strengthened foundations, will be required.
Liberty has forged a constructive relationship with the Georgetown government and the union, who share a vision of continued success and development for the mill and Georgetown.
United Steelworkers Union President at Georgetown, James Sanderson said: “Our members at Liberty are very encouraged by the news that there is going to be a big investment in the meltshop. Since the mill re-opened last year, they’ve worked hard to give it a successful future and their efforts have given Liberty the confidence to make this important long-term commitment to Georgetown.”
Liberty acquired the Georgetown mill in a shuttered state from ArcelorMittal in December 2017 and reopened the site seven months later.
Investment of €400 million over five years in seven locations
Sites officially relaunched this week under Liberty banner
A newly integrated business, headquartered in the UK, stretching across nine European countries
Liberty to introduce GREENSTEEL principles to improve sustainability
International metals and industrial entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta today pledged to invest €400 million over five years to build Liberty Steel’s newly acquired European steelworks into a major force in the global steel industry. Liberty has set a goal of expanding sales at the plants by 50% by 2022.
Liberty Steel, part of the GFG Alliance, this week officially inaugurated seven steelworks and five major service centres as part of the GFG family. The sites were bought at the beginning of July in a €740 deal that made Liberty one of the top ten steel producers globally, excluding China, with a total rolling capacity in excess of 18 million tonnes.
The steelworks are in Ostrava, Czech Republic; Galati, Romania; Piombino, Italy; Skopje, North Macedonia; Dudelange, Luxembourg and two plants near Liege, Belgium. Taken together, they employ 14,000 people and take the GFG Alliance’s global workforce to nearly 30,000 across 30 countries.
