Liberty Group Announces Acquisition of Four European Steel Mills from ArcelorMittal

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The U.K.-based Liberty House Group, a part of GFG Alliance, reached conditional agreement to acquire four integrated steel making facilities from ArcelorMittal. The facilities are part of the mills which ArcelorMittal had agreed to dispose of, as part of obtaining EC clearance for its acquisition of Italian Ilva S.p.A assets. The transaction is subject to EU approval.

Accordingly, Liberty will acquire the mills located in Ostrava, Czech Republic; Piombino Italy; Skopje, Macedonia; and Galati, Romania.

The landmark acquisition transaction is expected to take Liberty’s total rolling capacity to more than 15 million metric tons per year. Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman, GHG Alliance cited the agreement as the biggest milestone to date. The acquisitions will help the company to double its workforce and global production capacity, he noted. Furthermore, it will deliver strong presence in the heart of Europe’s key manufacturing regions, he added. Incidentally, the four mills are estimated to have a combined rolling capacity of around 8 million metric tons per annum.

Liberty has also committed further investment in the assets to be acquired, in order to achieve greater competitiveness.

The acquisition is part of Liberty’s strategy to expand its footprints across Europe. Recently, the company had acquired French aluminum wheels manufacturer AR Industries. Prior to that, it had also announced acquisition of Aluminium Dunkerque, Europe’s largest aluminium smelter from Rio Tinto.