As part of its regional growth ambitions in the steel industry, OYAK, the biggest complimentary pension fund in Turkey, has announced that it has signed an exclusivity agreement to buy British Steel, which has operations in the UK, France and the Netherlands. The UK-based steelmaker entered compulsory insolvency and was put up for sale on May 21, 2019
Ataer Holding owned by OYAK has signed an exclusivity agreement to conduct a detailed financial, legal and operational review of British Steel for a period of two months. After the successful completion of the detailed inspection process at the end of October this year, the acquisition of British Steel is expected to be completed within the current year.
OYAK general manager Süleyman Savaş Erdem said regarding the new investment: ‘We, as OYAK, Turkey's largest professional pension fund, believe in the importance of merging world league players into our group. Accordingly, we have recorded one of the biggest achievements of the Turkish steel industry and signed a preliminary agreement to buy the industrial giant of UK, British Steel. We will continue to evaluate opportunities globally in line with our growth-oriented vision and we will continue our investments to provide sustainable high benefit to our members.’
OYAK Mining Metallurgy Group head Toker Özcan said that the acquisition of British Steel will increase the weight of value-added products in its final product portfolio, adding that the acquisition of British Steel under the umbrella of Ataer is the first step taken within the future plans of the company, with the priority of increasing the production capacity and to invest in clean steel production in British Steel.