Liberty House, the metals and industrials group that is run by Sanjeev Gupta has acquired Caparo Industries from administration. The acquisition that has taken place has bought 100% of Caparo Industries from the administrators and has also led to the acquisition of a share in Caparo Merchant Bar plc. The acquisition needs to go through the final agreement with the pension Trustee for Caparo Industries. This final agreement will be reached when creditors of the business and a 1,700 member pension scheme is addressed as part of the acquisition.
Caparo Industries Plc went into administration near the end of 2015, although Caparo Merchant Bar managed to remain solvent. Since 2015 the largest producer of merchant bar in Britain has managed to remain in profit, although they were still coupled to the Caparo Industries in Administration because of the Caparo 1988 Pension Scheme. This connection has hindered the merchant bar manufacturer as they have been limited in the different ways that they could expand and improve their financial flexibility. This connection was also putting the business at risk as well as putting strain on creditors and the pension schemes of the employees.
Caparo Merchant Bar produces a variety of different steel bars as well as light sections that are commonly utilised in industries such as construction, energy, infrastructure, oil & gas, shipbuilding and transport. The merchant bar producer employs 145 workers who are split between two fully automated rolling mills which are located in Scunthorpe.
The acquisition of Caparo Industries and a share in Caparo Merchant Bar will complement the vast number of steel plants that have already been acquired by Liberty House. Liberty are looking into a solution for Caparo that would protect the company and its employees. This means that they have been in talks with the Trustee of the Pension Scheme which has 1,700 members including most of the workers at CMB as well as some employees from Liberty after the company acquired a number of business assets in 2015.
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