GLOBAL steel giant ArcelorMittal remains a key contender for Liberty Steel's key French sites, the troubled steel maker’s parent group GFG Alliance said.
The statement comes amid news of a provisional deal reached between Liberty Steel and Germany's Saarstahl.
On Thursday (1), the French Treasury announced that an in principle agreement has been signed between Liberty and Saarstahl for the purchase of France's Ascoval steelworks and Hayange rail plant.
"Although we are keen to keep LSF (Liberty Steel France) within the group we have also identified two credible buyers, in ArcelorMittal and Saarstahl, who will be able to build on our ambitions for the business," a GFG spokesman told AFP.
Liberty Steel is undergoing a drastic restructuring to offload assets after following the collapse of GFG's main financier Greensill Capital in March.
"LSF's main stakeholders will now decide the best way to ensure the plants' employees, customers and other stakeholders can have confidence in the sustainable future of the businesses," the GFG spokesman said.
He added, "Both businesses have faced a significant reduction in working capital support since the collapse of Greensill Capital and we have worked hard over the last few months to secure new financing and explore sale options for them."
GFG Alliance, owned by Indian-British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, had been Greensill's biggest customer at the time of its collapse earlier this year.
Greensill's burst highlighted Gupta's business practices, with the UK government describing the GFG structure as "very opaque" after declining to rescue it.
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