The Gupta Family Group Alliance has acquired Singapore-based Aartee Group Pte, the company said today.
The deal means GFG, a collection of entities including Liberty Steel, will also acquire Aartee Bright Bar (ABB) in the west Midlands, which went into administration on 6 February at the behest of its creditor, FGI.
GFG said it has provided sufficient funding to cover ABB staff's wages for four weeks, and has filed an application to challenge the administration. That application is "supported by a majority of business creditors", GFG said.
ABB is part of Aartee Steel Operations Limited, which is in turn owned by Singapore-based entity Aartee Group Pte. Other entities, including Aartee Bright Bar Property, Aartee Steel Group, Aartee Steel Holdings and Aartee Industries, sit under the same umbrella. Under the deal, GFG will acquire all these assets.
After Liberty's acquisition of ArcelorMittal assets as part of the latter's purchase of the Taranto steelworks in Italy, Aartee acquired the distribution units inherited by Liberty. These, alongside Aartee's other international entities, will come back under the GFG banner.
Jeff Kabel, GFG's chief transformation officer, said ABB is a key customer for Liberty, purchasing bar products from its Rotherham facility. In a note to employees, Kabel said ABB has a "strong balance sheet and positive net assets, and therefore should be able to continue operations as a going concern under Liberty".
When Aartee bought the Bright Bar facility, formerly known as Acenta, in July 2018, Aartee boss Ravi Trehan said he "would like to thank Sanjeev Gupta for sharing with us his vision for the regeneration of UK manufacturing".
Trehan and Gupta have deep ties. Trehan was previously a member of GFG Alliance's strategic board and served as a director of Simec International. He was also the director of Liberty Steel Newport until 2015.
Liberty's trading arm, Liberty Commodities, sold many cargoes of high-value nickel products to Aartee companies and raised money on the invoices from Greensill. A number of other Liberty-linked entities — including Paras Commodities, of which Trehan is still a director — also did business with Aartee.
Gianpiero Repole left Liberty Commodities to become group CEO of Aartee, but former colleagues from GFG said there was an overlap, where he was still sat in Liberty's London office trading on behalf of Liberty Steel Newport. Other Aartee employees were also sat in the Liberty office.
