Liberty Steel plant in Hartlepool bought by unknown foreign investor
Plus: the Darlington nurses back in the headlines, you read it here first though
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Leigh
On the subject of supporting hyperlocal newsletters… You may have seen a story on the BBC News website this week about the Darlington nurses tribunal. The headline read: “Trust spent £603k on trans changing room tribunal”.
If you’re a regular reader of The Teesside Lead, you wouldn’t have been surprised by that headline at all, given the information was first reported here on the 18th January. The full total - which was in that January article, and not in the BBC’s - is £603,188.23.
A mystery buyer has bought Liberty Steel’s Hartlepool plant, just weeks after it was put up for sale.
GFG Alliance, the ultimate parent company of Liberty Steel, announced on 30 January it was looking for a buyer of its Hartlepool business, which manufactures steel pipes, and for the deal to be complete by 20 February.
The company has confirmed “a major global pipe manufacturer has been selected as the buyer”, following what it says was “healthy and competitive interest from various investors”.
The buyer’s identity remains secret until the conclusion of public company clearance - this is a process by which the buyer notifies HMRC of the purchase in order to be clear on potential tax issues related to the sale.
Liberty Pipes (Hartlepool) Ltd - the company which has been sold - employs around 200 people at its site on Teesside. Last year the company was issued a winding up order from HMRC due to an unpaid tax bill. This was around the same time GFG Alliance’s other UK steel company, Speciality Steel UK, was put into liquidation after a judge called them “hopelessly insolvent”.
GFG Alliance, owned by Sanjeev Gupta, has been in financial meltdown since the collapse of its main investor, Greensill Capital, in 2021.
The Hartlepool business appears steady as a medium-term concern - it was one of eight suppliers to be awarded a share of £4bn to provide materials for the Northern Endurance Partnership carbon capture scheme.
So far Liberty Pipes has provided 51,000 tonnes of piping for the project, which will see carbon emissions from the forthcoming Net Zero Teesside gas-fired power station (and other carbon emitting businesses on Teesside) captured at source and stored in reservoirs beneath the North Sea.
In a message to workers at the Hartlepool site, Liberty bosses said the transaction had been structured in a way to “protect all stakeholders and ensure the continuation of production at Hartlepool”.
“It safeguards skilled employment and is expected to enhance industrial activity in the region.”
They said “pursuing a change of ownership is a positive move to secure a vibrant and sustainable long-term future for the site”.
Meanwhile, Paul McKenna, National Secretary for Steel at Community Union, said: “We welcome news that the accelerated sales process for the Hartlepool mills has now been completed.
“We look forward to meeting with the new owners and hearing more about their plans for the future of the works. This is a business with excellent facilities and enormous potential, and with the right strategy in place there’s no reason why it shouldn’t have a bright future ahead.”