[ad_1]
The government is lining up bankers to conduct a review of options for Britain’s embattled steel industry amid calls for ministers to orchestrate mergers between some of the sector’s biggest players.
Sky News has learnt that Evercore, the independent investment bank which now employs George Osborne, the former chancellor, was expected to be appointed in the coming weeks to oversee a strategic review of the sector.
If its appointment is confirmed, Evercore will report its findings to Peter Kyle, the business secretary, and UK Government Investments (UKGI), the Whitehall agency which manages taxpayers’ interests in a range of companies, including the Post Office and Channel 4.
The talks with Evercore come as the steel industry contends with the impact of President Trump’s tariff war and the prospect of retaliatory measures from the European Union.
The move to recruit bankers for a key review of Britain’s struggling steel sector also comes during a period when the government has significant financial exposure to all of the country’s three largest steel producers.
Last year, ministers agreed to provide £500m in grant funding to Tata Steel, the Indian company, to install an electric arc furnace at its Port Talbot steelworks in Wales.
The new facility is expected to be operational in 2027, but has been bitterly opposed by trade unions infuriated that the new funding was effectively used to drive through thousands of redundancies at the plant.
In April, the then business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, moved to seize control of British Steel after its Chinese owner, Jingye Group, threatened to close the UK’s last-remaining blast furnaces at its site in Scunthorpe.
The move sparked a diplomatic row with Beijing, with Jingye considering various legal options in an attempt to secure compensation for its shares in the company.
Last month, ministers disclosed that the cost of taking control of British Steel had risen to £235m, in addition to a £600m…
[ad_2]
