Ankara (AFP)

The pension fund of the Turkish army Oyak will conduct exclusive negotiations to buy the British Steel company in bankruptcy British Steel and try to save more than 4,000 jobs.

Oyak announced in a statement on Friday that its financial arm Ataer Holding has been selected as a potential buyer of British Steel which was forced to declare bankruptcy last May.

"We have (...) signed a preliminary agreement to buy the British industrial giant, British Steel," said Oyak's general manager, Süleyman Savas Erdem.

The band is now going to talk for two months with British Steel and hopes to close the deal by the end of the year.

Established in 1961 a year after a military coup, Oyak is very familiar with the sector as it owns 49% of the Turkish steelmaker Erdemir, which would be complementary to that of British Steel.

Total assets of the Oyak conglomerate were $ 19.3 billion in 2018, with investments in cement, energy, financial services and automotive.

In a separate statement, the official insolvency administrator, who manages the bankruptcy of the British group on behalf of the government, confirmed Ataer's choice, which was preferred to several other contenders.

"I am pleased to announce that I have received an acceptable offer from Ataer for the purchase of all of British Steel's business," said the director, who hopes to close the process in the next few months. weeks.

Meanwhile, British Steel continues its business with more than 4,000 employees, most of them in the giant steel complex at Scunthorpe in northeastern England, with the government acting as guarantor.

Number two in the UK behind Tata Steel, British Steel went bankrupt for lack of sufficient cash. He had put his financial difficulties on behalf of Brexit, whose uncertainties plague steel demand of its European customers.

Its bankruptcy has raised fears about the future of its employees and the twenty thousand people who work for its suppliers.

- 'Relief' -

The powerful British union Unite also welcomed the announcement of discussions with the pension fund trick, not without some reservations.

"It's time for relief," says Harish Patel, a Unite official who calls on the government to ensure a viable future for the UK steel industry, including avoiding a Brexit without a deal.

The government would have given the green light to a financial support of £ 300 million to relieve the finances of British Steel, revealed the channel Sky News last week.

The opening of exclusive negotiations with Oyak "is an important and positive step forward to secure the future of British Steel," said Andrea Leadsom, Minister of Enterprise and Industry of the Boris Johnson government.

The British trade association UK Steel also welcomed the news, recalling that the British Steel sites in Scunthorpe and elsewhere in the north-east account for one third of steel production in the United Kingdom.

Iron and steel is a sensitive subject in the United Kingdom where its history goes back to the Industrial Revolution dear to the British.

The takeover of British Steel by the Turkish pension fund does not affect the French sites of Saint-Saulve (Ascoval) and Hayange. The latter belong to the Olympus holding company of the Greybull fund, which was the parent company of British Steel but did not go bankrupt.

It remains to be seen whether British Steel will be able to make a fresh start three years after being relaunched by Greybull with the takeover of the European long products division of Britain's number one Tata Steel.

These products are required in the railway and construction sectors, the French SNCF and the British Network Rail being important customers.

© 2019 AFP