Liberty Steel appoints new restructuring committee as firm seals deal for Australian steelworks
Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel has today announced that it will set up a restructuring committee made up of four new directors in a bid to refinance the group after the collapse of Greensill in March.
In a statement, the firm, which is a subsidiary of the tycoon’s GFG Alliance, said that the new execs would “be given full autonomy to restructure Liberty’s operations to focus on core profitable units, and either fix or sell underperforming units”.
The appointments come after ministers criticised the conglomerate for a lack of transparency over its operations, which they said was the reason a bid for a £170m bailout was turned down.
Liberty was left staring down the barrel when boutique bank Greensill, its main source of financing, plunged into insolvency, causing a major lobbying scandal involving former PM David Cameron.
The new committee will be led by an independent chief restructuring officer, supported by an independent chief transformation officer.
Jeffrey Stein, a US executive who managed the restructuring of Whiting Petroleum, will fill the former role, with Jeff Kabel, chairman emeritus of the International Steel Trade Association
(ISTA) in the latter.
Both jobs are interim roles, with both Stein and Kabel paid in fees rather than employed by Liberty.
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The four-man panel will be rounded out by Iain Hunter, a banking exec, as chief governance officer, and Deepak Sogani, who will take over as finance chief.
Sogani comes from Essar, where predecessor V Ashok also used to work. Essar’s UK operations are also currently under scrutiny, as the Times reported.
“The RTC will support stakeholder engagement and work with the Liberty board and its adviser panel, comprising of PJT, Alvarez & Marsal and Norton Rose Fulbright, to negotiate an amicable solution with Greensill’s administrators and other stakeholders which protects value and provides the best outcome for all stakeholders”, the firm said in a statement.
The appointments come as it was announced that Liberty had managed to agree a restructuring deal for its Australian operations, hours before the deadline set by a winding-up order expired.
A number of other firms owed money by Gupta have issued similar orders in the UK and are ready to pounce upon the business.
Ministers have repeatedly been urged to step in to protect the 5,000 jobs the firm supports in Britain, but have said they will wait until Gupta has finished his refinancing attempts before acting.