India's Tata Steel on Wednesday completed the part-sale of its European assets, safeguarding 4,800 jobs, but thousands more are threatened with no buyer found for the rest of the business. Tata Steel UK announced completion of the sale of its European piping business to Greybull Capital, a British-based family investment firm for an undisclosed sum.
The deal, hailed by Tata, the British government and unions, means the return of the British Steel brand for the first time since 1999.
"From today the Long Products Europe business... will trade under the name of British Steel," Tata Steel UK said in a statement. "All together the business employs 4,800 people -- 4,400 in the UK and 400 in France. The sale follows an accelerated process of negotiations between Tata Steel UK and Greybull Capital."
Britain's government has been racing to find a buyer for Tata's UK assets -- and save around 16,000 jobs -- after the company's shock announcement in March that it was selling because of a global oversupply of steel, cheap imports into Europe, high costs and currency volatility.
Tata Steel in April said it had agreed to sell its Long Products Europe (LPE) division, whose chief asset is the Scunthorpe works in northern England, to Greybull Capital. Long products are items such as steel pipes that are sold by length. Tata is still looking for a buyer for the rest of its British assets, including the Port Talbot steelworks on the south Wales coast, Britain's biggest steel plant, which employs 4,000 workers.
