Feature
Gupta’s Liberty House formally bids for Tata Steel UK
London:Metals major Liberty House, founded by Indian-born industrialist Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, has formally submitted its bid for acquiring most of the UK assets of Tata Steel, that has suffered nearly $3 billion in losses thus far.
The company said it intended to buy all of Tata Steel UK’s assets, excluding its long products division, that is in the process of being sold separately, and the Scottish plate assets unit, which Liberty has already acquired from the Tatas.
“The bid is based on Liberty’s ‘Greensteel’ business model and would involve a transition from steelmaking in blast furnaces to recycling steel in electric arc furnaces over time, while ensuring the company continues to meet key customers’ quality requirements,” the company said.
“Steelmaking would be ultimately powered by renewable energy sources.”
Liberty said the UK steel industry can achieve long-term viability if the same is based on an agile, sustainable, non-cyclical model that integrates liquid steel-making from recycling with downstream production and the manufacture of advanced engineering products.
The company said it has set up a 12-member team for negotiations led by chairman Sanjeev Gupta and includes Jon Bolton, chief executive of Liberty Steel UK Plates, a former director with Tata Steel, and also chair of the trade body, UK Steel.
“The internal team includes senior executives with extensive experience in the global and UK steel industry, as well as specialists in the legal, environmental, finance and human resource fields. Five of the team have previously worked at senior level within Tata.”
A host of advisors have also been roped in for various facets of the deal — Macquarie Capital (Europe), State Bank of India Capital Markets, global lawyers Clyde and Company, Grant Thornton, Deloitte and Wardell-Armstrong on environmental issues.
Liberty Group has revenues approaching $5 billion, covering steel, raw materials and non-ferrous metals, while employing more than 2,000 people globally. It also produces about five million tonnes per annum of steel and steel products.
In March, Tata Steel UK announced an accord to sell its Clydebridge and Dalzell steel units in Scotland. The deal involved the sale of the two plants to the government of Scotland, which was to, in turn, sell them to Liberty House.
Earlier last month, British Business Secretary Sajid Javid met with Gupta here, before leaving for Mumbai to hold talks with the Tata Steel top brass on the future of the group’s UK steel business and prevent thousands of job losses.
The European arm of Tata Steel said in mid-April that it was in talks with as many as 190 suitors for its UK units and that KPMG would be its principal advisor in this regard, with Standard Chartered Bank as an additional one.
The announcement of the UK asset sale came after Tata Steel suffered $3 billion in losses in UK operations, some 10 years after it had forayed into Europe by acquiring Anglo-Dutch Corus for over $8.1 billion.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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