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Tata Managers Formalise Bid To Save Steel Jobs

A group of Tata management and staff has formally registered its interest in buying the company's steelworks, including the plant in Port Talbot, South Wales.

The buyout by Excalibur Steel UK Limited - which submitted its letter of intent on Tuesday - could save thousands of Tata Steel jobs in the UK.

Chief executive Stuart Wilkie said progress had been swift:

"It was only two weeks ago we made the decision to pursue a buyout," he said.

"We believe we have a large number of the pieces in place required to make this a success, including a management team with vast experience of steel-making and processing.

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"We are confident we can turn the business around and sustain profitable steel-making in the United Kingdom."

Mr Wilkie was previously the hub director of Tata Steel's strip products.

It is understood his proposal is based around a rescue deal that was rejected by Tata's board in Mumbai last month, calling on interested staff to invest £10,000 each.

Earlier, Wales's First Minister, Carwen Jones, said the Welsh government would offer Excalibur financial assistance.

Mr Jones said he was happy to support "a sustainable worker buy out", and cash had been made available to help Excalibur put its bid together.

"This will enable them to buy specialist advice, technical support and pay the salaries of the team while the sales process progresses," he said.

"We will consider supporting other bids too, should they make a case for it."

Rival Liberty House said it would also be submitting an interest in buying Tata's remaining UK assets ahead of a deadline on Tuesday evening.

Dozens of other "letters of intent" are expected too.

Tata's remaining UK steel operations include the Port Talbot plant, the UK's biggest steelworks which employs 4,000 people but is losing £1m a day amid a global steel price crunch.

Thousands of steel jobs have been lost in recent months as the industry buckles under pressure from a flood of cheap Chinese imports.

Liberty, which has already spoken of the possibility of turning Port Talbot into a plant that would create recycled steel via electric arc furnances rather than slab from blast furnaces, was the first company to express an interest in the business after it was put up for sale by its Indian owners in March.

A spokeswoman said today: "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".

Liberty has already agreed to take on two Tata mills in Lanarkshire - announcing plans to reopen them later this year.

The UK Government has confirmed the availability of measures worth hundreds of millions of pounds to support any rescue deal for the rest of the business – which could include taking a stake of up to 25%.

It has also been warned that it needs to act further on cutting energy costs if a successful bidder is to be competitive.

Liberty's executive chairman, Sanjeev Gupta, has said he could walk away from an offer if the price is too high - and stated his company will not take on any plants which will bring sustained losses.

The sale process does not include Tata's Scunthorpe plant which has already been sold in principle to Greybull Capital for £1.

It leaves 11,000 jobs at risk across the rest of Tata's UK steel operations which also include steel-making capability in Rotherham and nine product plants.