Liberty completes €740 million deal for European ArcelorMittal assets
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 tonnes covering a wide range of finished products.
Liberty Steel, part of entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta’s global GFG Alliance, on Monday completed the 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 tonnes covering a wide range of finished products, the company said in a statement.
This is the largest single transaction undertaken by GFG and brings the Alliance’s worldwide workforce to nearly 30,000 across 30 counties, it added.
The seven sites employ over 14,000 people and include the major integrated steel works at Ostrava in the Czech Republic and Galaţi in Romania as well as rolling mills at Skopje (North Macedonia), Piombino (Italy), Dudelange (Luxembourg) and two plants near Liege in Belgium. The service centres are based in France and Italy.
These operations, with a combined rolling capacity of over ten million tonnes pa, 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 said it aims to boost sales from these sites by around 50% over the next three years.
Gupta, GFG executive chairman, said: “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.”
Jon Bolton, the company’s global business development director, added: “These sites are well-positioned, efficient operations with competitive cost structures and we intend to build upon these strong foundations through a combination of judicious investments, changes to the production profile and synergies with our wider group.”