Tata Steel has named the executive who led the sale of its Scunthorpe works as the new head of the company’s operations in the UK.
The Indian-based business announced that Bimlendra Jha, already an executive committee member of Tata Steel Europe, had been appointed chief executive of Tata Steel UK and would oversee the sale of the remaining business.
Jha had “successfully led the divestment process that resulted in the signing of a sale and purchase agreement with Greybull Capital on 11 April”, the company said.
The investment firm is buying Tata’s long products business in a move that will revive the British Steel brand and could save up to 4,400 jobs. Greybull is keeping the steelworks in Scunthorpe open, along with two mills in Teesside, an engineering workshop in Workington, a design consultancy in York and a mill in northern France.
The deal did not include the Port Talbot steelworks or the rest of Tata’s UK business, which employs about 15,000 people and which is up for sale. More than 190 potential financial and industrial investors have been approached about the business, Tata said as it confirmed that Standard Chartered had been appointed as advisers alongside KPMG.
Koushik Chatterjee, Tata Steel’s group executive director, said: “Bimlendra’s successful experience of the process of divestment of ‘long products Europe’ will be invaluable as Tata Steel Europe explores strategic alternatives for its operations in the UK.
“To deliver greater clarity for all key stakeholders such as employees, customers and suppliers, it is important for the new team to seek all credible options in a time-bound manner.”
Jha’s appointment was announced as Sajid Javid, the business secretary, attended talks in Brussels to try to find answers to the global steel glut. He is meeting officials from China, which is blamed for dumping steel on the market, India and 27 other nations.
Before the summit, Javid told MPs: “My colleagues and I have already been in contact with potential buyers making it clear that the government stands ready to help ... Commercial confidentiality means I cannot go into detail about ongoing discussions.”
He set out how much the government had paid in compensation for energy schemes such as feed-in tariffs for generating power. “We have so far paid over £23m to 12 companies, including Tata,” Javid said. “We are continuing to rapidly work through applications and will be making further payments over the coming weeks. Our overall package of compensation and exemption will save the steel industry hundreds of millions of pounds over this parliament.”
