Turkey's military pension fund in talks to buy British Steel
Turkey's military pension fund is in exclusive talks to buy British Steel in a deal that could save thousands of jobs.
Ataer Holding said it was conducting a detailed financial, legal operational review of the business that would take two months. Ataer is a division of Oyak, which looks after the pensions of Turkey's military personnel and is the joint owner of Erdemir, a steel producer.
Oyak said it had signed an exclusivity agreement to buy British Steel, which became insolvent in May. Turkey's biggest pension fund said it was one of almost 80 potential bidders from around the world for British Steel, the UK's second-biggest steel producer.
Oyak's general manager Süleyman Savaş Erdem said: "We believe in the importance of merging world league players into our group. Accordingly, we have achieved one of the biggest achievements of the Turkish steel industry and signed a preliminary agreement to buy the industrial giant of UK, British Steel."
Brtitish Steel, whose biggest site is in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, entered insolvency after the UK government refused to give £30m to the business under its then owner Greybull Capital. The official receiver has been running the process to find a purchaser for British Steel, which employs about 5,000 people with 20,000 jobs in its supply chain.
Gareth Stace, director general of the trade association UK Steel, said:
"Today’s announcement is enormously positive news for British Steel, its workers, and UK manufacturing as a whole. British Steel’s production facilities in Scunthorpe and elsewhere in the North East represent one third of the UK’s steel production and are a major strategic asset to our country.
"While there is much work still to be done, today’s announcement is an important stepping stone on the way to securing a sustainable future for this cornerstone of British industry."
Stace called on the government to support the deal and come up with a long-term approach to support the industry.