The British refused to provide financial assistance to Liberty Steel, the BBC said. The case is also of interest to Ostrava – ČT24 – Czech Television

Liberty Steel founder, a British businessman of Indian descent, Sanjeev Gupta, sent a letter last week asking for help in covering daily operating costs and absorbing recent losses. Liberty is owned by GFG Alliance and its main creditor, Greensill Capital, filed for insolvency proceedings earlier this month. The GFG must therefore seek a new source of funding.

GFG has 5,000 employees and 12 plants in Britain. A government source told the BBC that the government was concerned about the opaque nature of Gupt’s empire, which has 35,000 employees worldwide. Any government help is more likely if forced administration is imposed on the company, the source suggested. The aid would support jobs in Britain and not the company that owns the steel plant. Liberty Steel is the third largest steel producer in Britain.

Czech interests

Liberty Ostrava has been a part of Liberty since 2019, the group bought it from a competing steel producer ArcelorMittal. According to the website, Liberty Ostrava, together with its subsidiaries, has six thousand employees.

The Czech Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlíček (for YES) said this week after talks with the British Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Industry Kwasi Kwarteng that the British and Czech governments will inform each other about the situation around Liberty Steel. The priority of the Czech government is to preserve all places in the Ostrava steel plant.

“The British are dealing with this in the same way as we in the Czech Republic at the level of minister and prime minister. We said to ourselves that no conclusions will be drawn without mutual information, “said Havlíček.

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