Worrying news: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56320416 I’ve often wondered how Gupta was able to ‘succeed’ - where Tata couldn’t make these assets/businesses viable and sustainable ......
I worked 13 years with British steel and then 7 years over here with two steel companies. Luckily I got out 23 years ago. When a very respected AEUW steward came back from a union convention in 1979 - he said in 20 years there won't be a steel industry in Britain. Canada mirrored UK - the equivalent of Port Talbot in Hamilton - went from 12,000 to just the coke ovens - two other companies just folded
I used to travel frequently to Burlington which is not far from Hamilton in Ontario. I used to stay in a hotel on Lakeshore Road in Burlington. There was a great restaurant nearby - the Carriage House
Drug deals and prostitutes - raids every Saturday night in 70s 80s - but a bit more towards Toronto. When I first came to Canada I worked for Steel Company of Canada STELCO in lake Erie - we stayed the first night in Toronto and they drove us down the next day - we went up the 'mountain' in Hamilton and the Scotsman who was diving us stopped half way up and pointed down and said that should make you feel at home - looked down and there was this great red haze over the city - just like Port Talbot!
The Times: “Steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta and financier Lex Greensill exploited a Covid-19 state guarantee scheme for struggling companies to extract £400 million of taxpayer-backed loans — eight times the limit. Gupta used the Australian banker Greensill to borrow so much using the government’s coronavirus large business interruption loan scheme (CLBILS) that the borrowing spree is understood to have sparked alarm in the Treasury. The scheme guarantees 80 per cent of loans from accredited lenders — up to a maximum of £50 million per group if the borrower is using supplier financing. However, Greensill is understood to have used supplier finance to hand eight state-backed loans of £50 million each to Gupta’s GFG Alliance empire and companies linked to him ....”
I bet ‘Call me Dave’ hugely regrets getting involved with Greensill ‘Dave’ like everyone else was ‘captivated’ with Gupta. In the reception of Liberty’s HO, there are photos of Gupta with Prince Charles, Cameron, Jimmy Krankie and Modi the PM of India. Someohe once told me that he thought that Gupta’s empire was a House of Cards....
