UK billionaire Gupta to form listed company with Atlantis Resources

LONDON – Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance has struck a deal with tidal power firm Atlantis Resources that marks the British billionaire's first step into the stock market.

GFG Alliance, the $10-billion turnover consortium that runs metals group Liberty House and energy and commodities group SIMEC, said in a statement Atlantis had agreed to buy SIMEC Energy's Uskmouth power station in Wales.

In return, SIMEC Energy will own a 49.99% stake in Atlantis, which will be renamed SIMEC Atlantis Energy, a new company that will become part of Gupta's worldwide energy, metals and industrials consortium.

As Atlantis Energy is listed on the London Stock Exchange's Aim market, the deal makes SIMEC Atlantis Energy the first member of the GFG Alliance to be listed on public markets.

Gupta last year offered to rescue steel plants owned by Tata Steel UK at the height of a steel market crisis that led to job losses, capacity cuts and bankruptcies worldwide.

The deal did not materialise but he has since bought other steel, aluminium and iron-ore assets in Britain, Australia and the US, and is eyeing industrial assets in India.

With the Atlantis deal, Gupta aims to drive forward the Uskmouth power station's 200-million pound conversion to renewable energy, and is looking to develop a tidal stream project in Scotland, as well as a tidal barrage project in Lancashire, England.

"The potential for this business to create enormous value in the renewable energy market in the near term is tangible and very exciting," said Gupta, whose "green steel" model is based on using renewable energy to recycle locally sourced scrap.

Under the GFG Alliance, Gupta owns assets around the world that span steelmaking, aluminium smelting, engineering, renewable and non-renewable energy, commodities trading, shipping, property and finance.

He told Reuters earlier this year that GFG is looking to list parts of its multi-billion dollar business, but that the listing of a steel asset will more likely happen in the United States rather than Britain.