BRITISH Steel looks set to be salvaged as the Government provides a support package worth up to £300million to a Turkish bidder.
Ataer Holding — which has links to a Turkish steelmaker — is thought to be the frontrunner to save the Scunthorpe steelworks that collapsed into liquidation 11 weeks ago.
The Government funding would allow the official receiver to grant Ataer a period of exclusive talks on buying the UK’s second-largest steel producer, which employs 4,000.
The package on offer includes grants, possible indemnities, loans on commercial terms and other items. Ataer — a subsidiary of Oyak, Turkey’s military pension fund — is understood to have submitted a formal and final offer for the whole of British Steel worth up to £70million.
MOST READ IN NEWS
MUM'S MERCY TRIP
ROYAL PAYMENT
MEN DOWN
AIRPOURT
LORRAINE KELLY
JAMES FORSYTH
Oyak is itself the largest shareholder in Turkish steelmaker Erdemir.
A consortium which includes a civil engineering firm working in West Africa is also in the running after making a late bid.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “We’ll leave no stone unturned to get a good solution for British Steel.”
Source: Read Full Article