Q: A lot of new energy going into steel?
A: Yes, indeed.
Q: Why did you get them going? Where did this passion for steel and this new energy come from?
A: Fundamentally, because it is a viable business and it is a profitable business. The opportunity first came up to acquire that steel plant back three years ago. We got the opportunity to acquire that at a good price, we spent some time fixing all the problems which had accumulated in the plant over years and all that came to a conclusion second half of last year when we were able to restart the plant after having cleaned up its debt, its legal claims. So now today it runs as a totally debt-free, claim-free, credit-free plant and it is running and making money as you can see.
Q: You said it was in distress and you also said it was profitable, how did you put the two together?
A: It had the potential to be profitable. UK is one of the highest priced markets for steel in the world. There are several things problematical with steel in the UK but they are fixable and this was the first step towards that.
Q: This is in New Port in Wales.
A: Yes.
Q: How far are we from Port Talbot?
A: About half an hour.
Q: We are in New Port, a short distance from Port Talbot. How far are we from getting Port Talbot for Liberty House's steel?
A: I cannot say a great deal about the process because we are in a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) but we are engaged, we have put together a panel of experts, they are doing their analysis and it takes quite some time and quite some work when we will make an attempt that making a bid for the assets.
Q: So you will be making a bid for Tata Steel and you had stated that your intention a while back but from a statement of intention to a letter of intent (LoI) is not a long distance, when are we likely to see the second?
A: Everybody knows, that is public information that is due next week. So we will be submitting our LoI.
Q: So you will be submitting the letter of intent next week to buy Tata Steel?
A: Yes.
Q: All of Tata Steel?
A: We are in an NDA situation, so I will not say too much but we have a panel of experts working doing all the analysis and we will be submitting our bid next week.
Source: moneycontrol.com