He's no longer the hero How Sanjeev Gupta's steel empire unravelled

A disparate collection of steelworks in Australia, the UK, Romania and the Czech Republic at the start of 2025 had two things in common: they were part of the metals empire of Sanjeev Gupta, and they had fallen silent.

- Jasper Jolly Jonathan Barrett

The idling plants were emblematic of Gupta's struggles. Born in India before starting a commodities trading business at university, he was once nicknamed the "saviour of steel" for his plans to turn around struggling plants.

Yet things looked very different this week, as he finally lost control of one of his key UK businesses.

The high court ruled on Thursday that Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), a key operating subsidiary, was "hopelessly insolvent" and should enter compulsory liquidation. It had debts of several hundred million pounds but only £650,000 in its account.

After the hearing, government-appointed special managers met executives to discuss taking control of steel plants in South Yorkshire and ensuring 1,450 workers were paid.

Gupta did not witness the SSUK liquidation in person; he was in Sydney. However, Jeffrey Kabel, the Liberty Steel executive in court, insisted Gupta was not done yet.

Gupta will try to buy back SSUK which has operations in Rotherham and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire - from insolvency, Kabel said, claiming Liberty was backed by investment manager BlackRock.

Meanwhile, the rest of Gupta's operations - steel and aluminium works in Scotland, Wales, England, and Australia - under the informal Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance banner, will be "exactly the same", Kabel said. "We will continue to operate those and invest in them." Yet the court proceedings and workers around the world present a picture of an industrialist running out of time and money, with creditors and worried governments closing in, and production slumping or stopping completely.

An investigation by the UK's Serious Fraud Office is continuing.

Gupta started trading commodities as a student at the University of Cambridge in the early 1990s. He then began snapping up struggling steel and aluminium plants on the cheap across Europe and Australia controlled via Singapore - and making them part of Liberty Steel.