British Steel swoops on Dutch steel maker in first acquisition since rescue

03/10/17

British Steel has emerged from the UK’s steel crisis with its first international acquisition, less than 18 months after Tata abandoned the troubled business.

British Steel’s owners have announced its first deal to buy FN Steel, which employs around 300 people in the west of the Netherlands, where it makes premium wire rods used by many major European car makers.

It is the latest sign of green shoots for the steel company, which turned a profit in the year to March after being rescued last year by Marc and Nathaniel Meyohas, the brothers behind investment firm Greybull, who also bought up the Scunthorpe steelworks.

The turnaround specialists paid a nominal £1 for the business after Tata Steel decided to pull back from the UK steel industry, which had been pushed to the brink by cheap steel imports from China. Greybull injected £400m into the struggling plant to save around 9,000 local jobs.

Since then steel prices have stabilised and Tata last week announced it would put its remaining UK steel assets – including Wales’ Port Talbot steelworks – into a joint venture with Thyssenkrupp.

The FN Steel acquisition is not expected to result in redundancies in the Netherlands or at British Steel’s Scunthorpe mill, which produces wire rods of slightly different diameter to FN Steel, suggesting a strong strategic fit, with limited overlap.

Peter Bernscher, British Steel’s chief executive, welcomed FN Steel’s employees “into the British Steel family” on Tuesday afternoon.

“When we complete this deal – which is subject to regulatory approval – it’s our intention to maintain employee and production levels in the UK and the Netherlands, and it will be very much business as usual,” he said.

“We’re now focused on completing the deal and working in partnership with the management, employees, unions, works council, customers and suppliers.”

Source-telegraph