Via the AFR:
British steelmaker and industrial firm Liberty House and its stablemate, IMEC, have emerged as the buyer of the Arrium assets including the Whyalla steelworks after making a third offer on Tuesday night.
The British duo, bidding under the entity of the GFG Alliance, has signed a binding agreement with administrators KordaMentha to buy the Australian assets of Arrium. It now needs to be approved by the committee of creditors.
It won out over the Korean consortium of Newlake Alliance and JB Asset Management. Liberty House and SIMEC, who are bidding through a vehicle known as GFG Alliance, are proposing a modernisation of the Whyalla steelworks and a power plant, which also would feed extra electricity back into the fragile South Australian power grid.
The Korean consortium of Newlake Alliance and JB Asset Management has signed a deal with Korean steelmaker POSCO where it will used POSCO’s patented Finex steelmaking technology and also build a 200-megawatt power plant in a combined $US1 billion ($1.32 billion) investment at the Whyalla steelworks.
How the world turns. In 2012 ARI rejected a takeover bid from Korea’s Posco at 75 cents per share. It wanted the steel business. It is not publicly known but is a fact that there was another counter bid in the market at an even higher price that was also focused particularly on rejuvenating the steel business.
At least it’s been saved even if it never needed to be.
