British Steel name reemerges in UK

India-based steelmaker Tata Steel has agreed to sell its long products mill in Scunthorpe, United Kingdom, to an investment group that says it plans to bring back the British Steel brand name.

As reported in an online article by The Telegraph, Tata Steel agreed a deal to sell the Scunthorpe site for £1 “to a management buyout backed by distressed debt investors Greybull Capital." If the deal is finalized it could save up to 4,400 steelmaking jobs in the U.K.

The Telegraph says London-based Greybull is run by brothers Nathaniel and Marc Meyohas and two other partners, who also purchased U.K.-based Monarch Airlines in 2014.

The new owners say they plan to rename the former Tata Long Products Europe (LPE) facility to British Steel after and if the acquisition is finalized. Marc Meyohas was quoted as calling British Steel a “brand with incredible heritage.”

The deal will reportedly be incumbent on the final acceptance of a turnaround plan reached between Tata LPE managers, trade unions and suppliers.

The purchased LPE assets include “the Scunthorpe site as well as two mills in Teesside, U.K., an engineering workshop in Workington, U.K.; a design consultancy in York along with a mill in Hayange, France,” according to The Telegraph.

A report on the Financial Times website indicates that Greybull and Tata Steel may not be finished making deals, as Greybull has reportedly expressed interest in Tata’s specialty steel operations in the U.K., which bills itself as the world’s third largest supplier of aerospace steels and employs about 2,000 people.

That division “produces high-end steel for aircraft, oil drilling and cars” at mills in Rotherham and Stocksbridge U.K., says the Financial Times, “with customers including Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover.”