Liberty Steel said on Monday it had acquired seven steel making units and five service centres from LN Mittal’s ArcelorMittal in Europe for €740 million (around ₹5,782 crore), according to a company statement.
Indian-origin metals tycoon Sanjeev Gupta-owned company has acquired the major integrated steel works at Ostrava in the Czech Republic and Galati in Romania as well as rolling mills at Skopje (North Macedonia), Piombino (Italy), Dudelange (Luxembourg) and two plants near Liege in Belgium, it said.
These seven sites employ over 14,000 people.
The five service centres which market the products are based in France and Italy.
These operations, with a combined rolling capacity of over ten million tonne per annum supply steel to multiple sectors across Europe’s industrial heartlands, including construction and infrastructure products, automotive, aerospace, energy, industrial equipment, consumer products and yellow goods.
“Liberty Steel today (Monday) completed acquisition of seven major steelworks and five service centres across seven European countries from ArcelorMittal.
“The €740 million deal makes Liberty Steel one of the top ten producers globally, excluding China, with a total rolling capacity in excess of 18 million tonne covering a wide range of finished products,” the company, which is part of London-based GFG Alliance, said. This is the largest single transaction undertaken by GFG and brings the Alliance’s worldwide workforce to nearly 30,000 across 30 countries, it said.
Liberty Steel said it aims to boost sales from these sites by around 50% over the next three years.
With Monday’s announcement, Liberty Steel will now work with local management, trade unions, customers and suppliers and complete a comprehensive analysis of the businesses to explore investment opportunities.
In the medium term, Liberty will explore opportunities to produce higher-quality steels with a more flexible production profile.
“These businesses will form a key part of our global steel strategy, of building a sustainable steel business, with a fully integrated value chain, from raw materials to high-value finished products that are distributed in high quality markets,” Sanjeev Gupta, GFG executive chairman, said.
Earlier this month, Liberty Steel acquired Johnstown Wire Technologies (JWT), North America’s largest producer of value-added carbon and alloy wire. The company, however, did not provide the financial details of the transaction. GFG Alliance is a global group of energy, mining, metals, engineering and financial services businesses.
