Liberty debt approaching $7bn

The Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance, which includes British metals company Liberty House Group, has total debt of around $6.8bn and an equity value of just $123mn, according to draft documents drawn up by advisers that Argus obtained late last week.

Liberty Steel East Europe — which includes the Galati plant in Romania and the Ostrava mill in the Czech Republic — has the largest debt in the group at $2.8bn, and an equity value of minus $1.6bn.

Liberty Commodities has the next largest debt, with $846mn owed to recently collapsed Greensill Capital and $194mn to other lenders.

Next is the UK business, with debt of $843mn, of which $769mn is attributable to Greensill. The UK division excludes the engineering business, which has $64mn of debt. The advisory document does not specify the equity value of the UK assets, which could be close to falling into administration.

Liberty is trying to raise cash against less indebted and higher equity assets, such as long steel products manufacturer Infrabuild, while professional services firm Alvarez and Marsal works on a restructuring plan. Infrabuild has an equity value of $2.1bn, with debt of just $403mn.

Meanwhile, documents obtained by Argus show that GFG Alliance executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta was a director of Seahorse Shipping and Logistics, which produced bills of lading for the Liberty group. Bills of lading can be used to finance seaborne material.

Seahorse was also linked to Panama Cargo Lines, according to the latter's articles of incorporation. Panama Cargo Lines is owned by Vladimir Delic, who was linked to Gupta in the Panama Papers. Delic is the sole beneficiary of UBG Commodities in the UK, a company with one employee and $395mn in revenue in 2019.

By Colin Richardson