Liberty Steel is the third largest steel producer in Britain. The company also operates in the Czech Republic, where it owns the Liberty Ostrava metallurgical company. The British government is preparing plans to rescue Liberty Steel in the event of the collapse of their parent company GFG Alliance. According to Havlíček, the priority for the Czechia is to maintain all six thousand jobs.
List The Financial Times reported last weekthat the parent company GFG Alliance, backed by British Indian businessman Sanjeev Gupta, must seek a new source of financing after its main creditor, Greensill Capital, declared insolvency.
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“The British, like us in the Czech Republic, are dealing with this at the level of minister and prime minister. With the proviso that in the coming days they will address all possible options. We said to ourselves that no conclusions will be drawn without mutual information, “said Havlíček.
According to him, the employees of the Ostrava smelter do not have to worry about future developments. “It simply came to our notice then. The situation is not easy, but we will do our utmost to keep jobs. Liberty Ostrava’s results are not bad at all. It is about agreeing a joint procedure with the British, we will be in constant contact, “said Havlíček.
The annual report published in the Collection of Documents shows that Liberty Ostrava generated a net profit of 305 million crowns in the period from 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2020. During that time, it had an operating loss of 61 million crowns, the economic result was 422 million crowns. Revenues from the sale of products and services reached almost 37 billion crowns.
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The previous results published by the company concerned the management of 2018. At that time, it still belonged to the ArcelorMittal group and was called ArcelorMittal Ostrava. In 2018, the smelter reported a net profit of 4.1 billion crowns and an operating profit of 726 million crowns with revenues of 32.6 billion crowns. The management of the smelter was affected by the corona crisis last year, due to which demand fell.
In Britain, Liberty Steel operates twelve steel mills and employs 5,000 people. Britain’s shadow business minister, Ed Miliband, said last week that the government should consider all possible ways to save the steelworks, including possible nationalization.
According to the Finacial Times, unnamed government officials said that one of the options considered for rescue is to use public funds to maintain production in a similar way to the British government’s support for British Steel the year before. At that time, this aid cost taxpayers almost 600 million pounds, about 18 billion crowns.
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