While exclusive talks continued between the Official Receiver and preferred bidder OYAK over the sale of the UK based steel producer, Chinese steelmaker Jingye group approached the UK government with a fresh offer for British Steel last week, according to UK-based Sky News.
OYAK didn’t make any comment to S&P Global Platts about the news on Monday.
The Official Receiver could not engage in discussions with rival bidders during the exclusivity period, but the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was not prohibited from holding talks with other potential buyers of British Steel, according to Sky News.
Jingye’s renewed interest, which is based in Hebei province in northern China, could strengthen ministers’ hand in the ongoing negotiations, Sky News said.
As part of its regional growth ambitions in the steel industry, OYAK, the biggest complementary pension fund in Turkey, signed an exclusivity agreement to buy British Steel in mid-August, as reported.
According to an OYAK statement previously sent to Platts, after the successful completion of a detailed inspection process at the end of October, the handover was expected to be held by year-end. Turkish military pension fund OYAK is Ataer Holding’s parent company, which is the largest shareholder in Erdemir, the nation’s biggest steel producer.
British Steel, which went into compulsory liquidation on May 22, has about 3 million mt/year of production capacity in the UK, France and the Netherlands.
— Cenk Can