HMRC withdraws winding up petitions for GFG Alliance firms
The taxman has withdrawn petitions to wind up four steel businesses from GFG Alliance, providing under-fire steel king Sanjeev Gupta a late hour reprieve.
GFG announced on Monday that positive discussions with creditors had resulted in the petitions being withdrawn.
The conglomerate had been searching for rescue financing to save firms including Liberty Steel after the supply chain finance firm Greensill filed for insolvency last year.
In a statement, GFG said it had pumped further cash into Liberty Steel, to allow higher production as steel prices soar.
Jeffrey Kabel, chief transformation officer, said: “We’re pleased to report good further progress in our negotiations with creditors including UK’s HMRC. We are committed to repaying all creditors and this is an important step in enabling us to restructure and achieve long-term refinancing.
“Our core international businesses have continued to generate strong returns and achieve record production levels despite the sky-high energy costs facing energy-intensive industries across the UK and Europe. We will continue to progress our efforts to refocus and refinance our operations for the long-term.”
Gupta’s conglomerate is Britain’s third-biggest steel producer and is responsible for employing over 2000 people.
However, it has faced an uncertain future over the past year, including when Gupta’s request for £170m from UK taxpayers was rejected in May last year.
He has also faced investigations in France, with American Industrial Partners taking hold of the group’s Dunkirk smelter last November.