Sanjeev Gupta finally gets a presence in India, completes acquisition of Adhunik Metaliks

After several twists and turns, billionaire industrialist Sanjeev Gupta has finally got a presence in India.

His GFG Alliance on February 18 announced the acquisition of Adhunik Metaliks, the stressed company that had been referred to the National Company Law Tribunal.

The deal, which also includes Zion Steel, is worth $60 million, or about Rs 425 crore, said a statement from the company. Adhunik owed banks over Rs 5,300 crore.

"The transaction marks the Alliance's entry into India – one of the world's fastest growing steel markets," it said.

"Today marks an important milestone in our global steel strategy with the purchase of Adhunik Metaliks and our entry into India," added Gupta, the Chairman of the Alliance. All the steel businesses of the Alliance come under its LIBERTY Steel Group.

The announcement comes after the NCLAT had asked the Alliance to make a payment by February 14. And it also brings to close an often contentious insolvency process. Though GFG Alliance's bid was accepted in 2018, the case went into litigation.

Similar is the case of Amtek Auto, for which again the Alliance had emerged as the largest bidder. But after it backed out of the deal, the banks had to restart the auction, and a US based hedge fund has now emerged as the favourite.

Global empire

Gupta, who started off in the trading business, has created a global steel empire buying loss making units across the world. LIBERTY Steel Group now produces 18 million tons a year, making it the 17th largest steelmaker in the world.

"It has been a challenging journey to get us to this stage, but we now look forward to starting work in partnership with all stakeholders to revive these plants and bring employment back. On a personal note, it is great to be investing in the country where my family began in the steel industry a generation ago," Gupta said.

Adhunik is an integrated steel plant located at Chadrihariharpur near Rourkela in Odisha. The plant has both blast furnace and Electric Arc Furnace steel making capability with 0.5 million tons per annum capacity, and a 34MW captive power plant.  Adhunik along with Zion Steel, its associated steel rolling facility, has a combined rolling capacity of 0.4 million tons per annum.  The sites produce products for the automotive, energy, engineering and oil & gas sectors.