British commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta will merge his family’s steel operations by the end of the year into a new entity, the Liberty Steel Group, to be ready for a potential listing, he said on Tuesday.
Other companies in his family’s privately-held GFG Alliance conglomerate will also be organised for possible IPOs in the future, he told Reuters in an interview.
“Whether it’s the steel, aluminium or energy companies … all the companies will be made ready in terms of governance, reporting and transparency, so they’ll be ready in every way to go for a listing as and when they want to.”
Currently, the steel assets are held under GFG’s Liberty House Group, but will be incorporated by the end of the year with a board of directors and consolidated accounts for its $15 billion of annual turnover.
“The merger will take place by the end of the year and we’ll do a set of proforma numbers within Q1 next year,” said Gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance.
He said any potential listing could be in London or elsewhere.
Liberty Steel, with annual output of 18 million tonnes, would be the world’s 17th largest steel producer, based on World Steel Association figures for 2018.
The new steel group, with operations in 10 countries and 30,000 employees, will also press ahead with a sustainable steel initiative, aiming to become carbon neutral by 2030, Gupta said.
Source: Mint