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  • 03/05/2016
  • Media Releases

Liberty House Group names core team and external advisors for Tata UK bid

Steering Commitee

Sanjeev Gupta – Executive Chairman, Liberty House GroupMr Gupta established the Group in 1992 while reading Economics and Management at Trinity College, Cambridge University. From a general merchant business, focused on Africa, in 24 years he has grown the business into a global enterprise with a network of offices spread across 30 countries with turnover exceeding US$ 4 billion and net assets over US$ 400m.

Jay Hambro – Group Chief Investment Officer, GFG Alliance; Chief Executive Officer SIMEC

After graduating in business management, Mr Hambro began his career in resource finance with NM Rothschild & Sons, before moving to the investment bank of HSBC. He then joined what is now the Petropavlovsk plc group in a business development role and later as Chief Investment Officer before spearheading the development of their industrial commodity divisions as Aricom plc (FTSE listed) and more recently as Executive Chairman of HK Exchange listed IRC Limited. He joined the GFG Alliance in January 2016.

Jon Bolton – Chief Executive Officer, Liberty Steel UK Plates & UK Steel Development

Mr Bolton is one of the most prominent figures in UK steel. He has over 30 years of experience in the steel industry on both sides of the Atlantic, most of these in senior positions with Tata Steel and its predecessors Corus and British Steel. As director of Tata Steel Europe’s Long Products business, he previously led a number of UK based sites. He is chairman of the industry’s representative body, UK Steel, and currently chairs the UK Steel Council jointly with Secretary of State, Sajid Javid.

Broader team

Paul Francis – Chief Executive Officer, Liberty Commodities Group

Paul Francis heads Liberty’s commodities trading arm – Liberty Commodities Group – which enjoys the reputation of being the global leader in the supply and finance of steel and raw materials, including scrap, iron ore and coking coal/coke. His career started in European commodity trade finance (predominantly in the ferrous and non-ferrous metals sector), working with leading banks including Société Generale, Credit Agricole and RZB. He joined the Liberty House Group in 2008 to lead the commodities side of the business and since then has been essential in developing the business into a global powerhouse with a footprint across 30 countries.

Douglas Dawson – Chief Executive Officer, Liberty Industries Group

Douglas Dawson studied Engineering at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), and graduated in 1982. Subsequently, Douglas has been awarded a lifetime achievement award for services to the manufacturing sector and an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering.  After graduation, he was appointed Chief Engineer as a sea-going Engineering Officer, before gaining over 25 years’ experience in industry, including in senior positions within BTR Industries, Citicorp Venture Capital, SPX Corporation and Caparo Group.

VB Garg – Chief Executive Officer, Liberty Steel Newport

The Punjabi-born Mr Garg is a graduate mechanical engineer who also holds an MBA from INSEAD Paris. He has an impressive 25-year industry track record which encompasses JSW and TATA steel in India and ArcelorMittal in UAE, Luxembourg and Ukraine. In addition to marketing and sales, Mr Garg is a specialist in supply chain management. In his most recent appointment as the chief of marketing and sales for ArcelorMittal’s flagship Ukrainian plant at Kryviy Rih he led the facility for more than three years, delivering six million tonnes of long products a year, including billets, rebars, wire, rod and merchant bars.

Uday Chaturvedi – Special Senior Advisor UK Strip

Uday Chaturvedi brings extensive knowledge of global steel manufacturing and the Tata Steel UK business, having held senior positions including Vice President of Long Products, Chief Technical Officer for Tata Europe, and Managing Director of Strip Products UK, along with other Board positions for Tata Steel UK and the Corus Group.  During these roles, Mr. Chaturvedi both led and oversaw major transformation and performance improvement projects with deep focus on manufacturing operations. He currently works with Grant Thornton UK LLP’s Industrial Sectors practice as a specialist advisor.

Hridayeshwar Jha – Director UK Steel Development & Projects

Mr. Jha has thirty seven years of experience in steel making, having led large steel plants and overseen such as operations, maintenance, engineering, green-field/ brown-field projects, marketing & sales, TQM, mining and safety. He championed many transformational changes and breakthrough improvements, including one of the most ambitious projects for Tata Steel in the Eastern state of Odisha, India. As a Hub Director, he was in charge of the Strip Business in UK, which incorporated the 4.8 MTPA integrated Steel Plant at Port Talbot and Llanwern in South Wales, UK. As a Director of Key Asset Development, he was also involved in the strategic planning of major investments for Tata Europe.

Gianpiero Repole – Chief Marketing Officer, UK Steel Energy

Mr Repole holds a Master Degree from the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona. He started his career an auditor and financial controller for Cargill, after which he spent further 15 years working with companies such as Enron, Macsteel International and Noble. Gianpiero has an extensive level of experience across the full supply chain management in the steel industry, starting from the shipment of raw materials up to the distribution of processed products.

James Busche – Chief Executive Officer, SIMEC Uskmouth Power, Central Services

James has an extensive background in renewable and conventional energy, most recently as CEO of SIMEC Uskmouth Power in the UK.  His background is many years with Baker Hughes (BHI) and then as President and CEO for KHD International based in Hong Kong a NYSE quoted corporation with a market capitalization of over US$1 billion and $850m of revenues. He has an extensive background in international, multi-cultural environments and emerging markets, with a deep knowledge of Mining, Energy, Capital Equipment, Process Plant Engineering, Construction and Natural Resource sectors. Furthermore, he has a substantive record in M&A, business integration and value growth.

Denise Timns – Human Resources

Denise Timns, Liberty’s Global Head of HR, joined the group in March 2016.  She has over 15 years of experience in specialist and generalist HR roles, with the past 11 years being in senior HR positions within the commodity trading sector.  As part of her last Global Head of HR role she was based in Geneva and was responsible for an industrial / asset based subsidiary of one of the world’s leading global commodities traders that had over 2000 employees across 30 + countries.  In this role she was involved in integrating several acquisitions and implementing HR strategies across greenfield sites.

Sanjay Tohani – Legal Liaison

Sanjay Tohani holds a BSc (Hons) in Finance from City University’s Business School. His first appointment in the commodities sector was with Priyanka Overseas India PVT Ltd where headed agricultural sales for West and North Africa and Pakistan in volumes that reached 3 million MT per annum. His next position was in Transocean Commodities Dubai where he led non-ferrous sales to the Middle East. He joined Liberty in 2012 as a Director of Liberty Steel Newport, and played an active role in the restructuring of the plant’s operations as well as the more recent Caparo and Scottish mills acquisitions by the Group.

Derek O’Reilly – Finance Director Liberty Industries Group

Mr. O’Reilly began his career with KPMG in London where he trained as a chartered accountant. He spent the next five years working for the Eaton Aeroquip corporation, before moving to British American Tobacco. More recently he also held senior finance positions with the Shop Direct Group, Boots and Caparo Industries plc. Mr. O’Reilly graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Physics. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a member of the Institute of Corporate Treasurers.

External advisory panel

Lead financial advisor: Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited

Macquarie Group (Macquarie) is a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services. Founded in 1969, Macquarie operates in more than 63 office locations in 27 countries and employs more than 14,000 people. Assets under management total approximately £234 billion at 30 September, 2015. Macquarie Capital is the advisory, capital markets and principal investment arm of Macquarie Group. Macquarie Capital provides strategic M&A and capital raising advice across a range of industries to its global client base. Macquarie Capital’s team for Liberty is led by Raj Khatri, Head of Metals and Mining EMEA, who has over 20 years’ investment banking experience including extensive experience working on franchise M&A transactions and capital raisings for global steel sector leaders including the $34bn Arcelor acquisition by Mittal Steel.

Co-financial advisor: State Bank of India Capital Markets

State Bank of India is India’s premier banking institution with a legacy of over 200 years, serving over 273 million customers, delivers full range of cross border finance solutions including, such as retail asset and liability products, corporate lending, loan syndication, merchant banking, short term financing, trade finance, collection of clean and documentary credits and remittances.

Legal advisor: Clyde & Co.

Clyde & Co is a global law firm with a pre-eminent reputation in all aspects of international trade and commodities. With 1,800 lawyers operating from 45 offices across 6 continents, our full service offering in the main regional trading hubs means we serve our clients’ needs in all time-zones, at any time of the day. Recognised as the legal market leader in the commodities sector and ranked as the top commodities law firm in legal directories, our end to end experience of the commodities supply chain gives our advice a particular depth of understanding.  This is underpinned by legal expertise across both our contentious and non-contentious practices.

Accounting/Tax & Technical Advisors: Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton UK LLP has over 4,500 people and is part of a global network of independent Grant Thornton member firms totalling more than 42,000 people worldwide, operating in over 130 countries and with revenues of $4.6bn. Grant Thornton UK LLP specialist team will be providing upstream and downstream Steel Industry and Transactions advice to Liberty House Group.

Pensions Advisor: Deloitte

Deloitte specialise in the provision of audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, tax, and related services to select clients through a network of tens of thousands of professionals from independent firms globally. These firms are members of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”).

Environmental Advisors: Wardell-Armstrong

Wardell Armstrong is a professional international environmental and engineering consultancy with roots in mining and minerals. The business delivers consultancy services to clients in the following sectors:  renewable energy, waste resource management, property and development, utilities and infrastructure, mining and minerals, sport and leisure, planning, landscape and the environment. The business employs over 480 people, with 14 offices in the UK and two overseas offices, one in Moscow and the other in Almaty.

Commercial Advisor: CRU

CRU is an independent, privately owned consultancy business delivering specialist research and market advice, covering 75 commodities in metals, mining and fertilisers. With a global presence, the business focuses on industry trends and global commodity prices, often predicting these with great accuracy.

Electric Arc Furnace Advisors: Primetals Technologies (JV between Siemens and Mitsubishi)

In 2014, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Siemens established a new joint-venture company named Primetals Technologies, Limited for the metals industry. With this both partners formed a globally-operating complete provider of plants, products and services for the iron, steel and nonferrous industries. Mitsubishi-Hitachi Metals Machinery (MHMM) – an MHI consolidated group company with equity participation by Hitachi, Ltd. and IHI Corporation – holds a 51% stake and Siemens a 49% stake in the joint venture.

Julian Allwood: Professor of Engineering and the Environment at the University of Cambridge.

Professor Allwood worked for 10 years for Alcoa on the control of strip rolling, prior to developing an academic career motivated by the need to reduce industrial carbon emissions by making less new material. His research group of around 25 people, funded by public and private research contracts worth around £2m per year, has three strands of activity. Firstly, they are developing techniques for interactive whole systems analysis of energy, material, and natural resource systems to anticipate resource stresses and strategic opportunities. A spin-out company from the group, Foreseer Ltd, has recently been launched to expand the reach of this work. Secondly, they are examining the technical and business options for living well with less new material production across the global supply chains of the bulk materials. Julian’s 2012 book “Sustainable Materials: with both eyes open” on this theme was listed by Bill Gates as “one of the best six books I read in 2015, and the group is now developing evidence about commercial opportunities for using less new material. Thirdly, the group are developing novel processes to minimise process scrap and to enable material re-use. A second spin-out company, Reduse Ltd., was launched in 2013 to commercialise their work on laser un-printing to allow paper re-use, and a £1m industrial prototype of their novel spinning machine is being commissioned at the Manufacturing Technology Catapult Centre. Julian is a member of the UK’s Energy Research Partnership, was a Lead Author of the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with a focus on mitigating industrial emissions, is Chairman of the metal forming branch of the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP) and is an Honorary Fellow of the UK’s Institution of Materials, Minerals and Mining.