Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is trying to force an arm of the tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s UK steel empire into insolvency, casting renewed doubt on the future of a business employing close to 2000 people.
Sky News has learnt that a winding-up petition against the speciality steels division of Mr Gupta’s Liberty Steel was filed by the taxman earlier this week.
Sources said the move underlined the continuing fragility of the finances of Britain’s third-biggest steel producer.
The petition is expected to be heard late next month.
It was unclear on Thursday how much Mr Gupta’s speciality steel business, which operates plants in Rotherham and Stocksbridge, owed HMRC, although one source estimated that it was in the tens of millions of pounds.
The tax authority’s decision to file a winding-up petition follows the expiry late last year of a moratorium against such actions by company creditors.
That measure had been introduced by the government to give company bosses greater protection during the pandemic.
Mr Gupta has been engaged in a precarious financial juggling act since a request for £170m from British taxpayers was rejected in May last year.
His holding company, GFG Alliance, was left scrambling for survival after its principal lender, Greensill Capital, collapsed.
Lex Greensill’s Greensill Capital was GFG’s principal lender
Since then, the tycoon has embarked on several rounds of restructuring, which have included a number of disposals around the world.
By averting outright collapse, Mr Gupta has confounded sceptics who predicted that the steelmaker and its associated businesses would fail within weeks of its plea for government support.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, said at the time that the request had been rejected partly as a a…
Source : skynews
