Liberty House to bid to buy Tata Steel's UK assets

Liberty House has confirmed it will put in a formal bid to buy Tata Steel's UK assets.

The commodities trading firm was the first to express an interest after the Indian conglomerate announced the decision to dispose of its loss making UK business, including the country's biggest steel plant at Port Talbot in south Wales.

A spokesman said Liberty said: "We can confirm that Liberty will submit a letter of intent to Tata Steel today and has put in place a strong internal transaction steering committee and panel of leading external advisers to take the bid forward."

A further statement is expected later today.

A management buyout team is also planning to submit a bid under the name Excalibur Steel UK Limited.

The Government has pledged to support any buyer of the business by buying up to a quarter stake and making hundreds of millions of pounds of finance available.