Liberty Steel, an industrial and metals company, has reportedly acquired five service centers and seven steel making units from Lakshmi Mittal's ArcelorMittal in Europe, for an agreed price of 740 million euros.
Sources close to the matter informed that Liberty Steel, a company owned by Indian-origin tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, has taken over the major combined steel works at Galati in Romania and Ostrava in the Czech Republic along with rolling mills at Piombino (Italy), Dudelange (Luxembourg), Skopje (North Macedonia), and two plants near Liege, Belgium. The five centers which market the products are formally based in Italy and France.
Apparently, these overall operations with a joined rolling capacity of more than 10 million tons per annum, supply steel to various sectors across industrial heartlands of Europe, including aerospace, construction and infrastructure products, industrial equipment, automotive, yellow goods, and consumer products.
According to company officials, the 740 million euros agreement makes Liberty Steel one of the top ten manufacturers worldwide, excluding China, with an overall capacity surpassing 18 million tons covering a broad range of finished products.
For the record, this is the largest single transaction carried out by GFG Alliance and brings its globally workforce to about 30,000 people working across 30 countries.
Seemingly, Liberty Steel aims to enhance sales from these sites by about 50% over the next three years. It will now work with trade unions, local management, customers and suppliers, besides completing a comprehensive analysis of the business for exploring investment opportunities.
Over the medium term, Liberty will explore opportunities to manufacture high quality steels having a more flexible production profile. Earlier this month, Liberty Steel had reportedly acquired Johnstown Wire Technologies (JWT), the largest producer of value-added alloy and carbon wire in North America. Financial details regarding that particular deal were not disclosed by the company.