Sanjeev Gupta's steel empire is close to collapse: he has just lost a plant in Britain
Sanjeev Gupta, 2016 (Photo: EPA / ANDY RAIN)

On Thursday, August 21, a London court ordered the forced liquidation of Speciality Steel UK, which was part of the metallurgical empire of British businessman of Indian origin Sanjeev Gupta. The company was recognized as "hopelessly insolvent": with debts of hundreds of millions of pounds, only 650,000 remained on its account, writes The Guardian .

Gupta's business, which until recently was called the "savior of steel" (he bought bankrupt steel mills in Europe, uniting them under the Liberty Steel brand), has been in crisis since 2021, when his main creditor, Greensill Capital, went bankrupt.

The situation has been exacerbated by an oversupply of Chinese steel on the market, falling demand for metals, and Donald Trump's trade war. The investigation by the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) creates additional pressure.

Due to debts, Gupta has already lost control of the plant in the Australian city of Wyalla, his companies in Belgium, Hungary, Luxembourg and Poland have declared bankruptcy, the Czech plant Liberty Ostrava was sold for about 100 million pounds, and the Romanian plant Liberty Galați narrowly avoided bankruptcy thanks to restructuring.

In total, at least 15 companies of Gupta's GFG Alliance group are in insolvency proceedings in different countries.

Thousands of workers in the UK, Australia and elsewhere remain uncertain about the future as governments scramble to find new investors for strategically important steel assets.

Gupta himself, staying in Australia, announced through his representatives his intention to buy Specialty Steel UK out of insolvency. He claims to have the support of the investment company BlackRock. However, the plant's employees are not optimistic .

"I think in the long run this will be the beginning of a new era. We've been wanting to get rid of Gupta for a long time," said one of the workers .

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