Whyalla rescued by man of steel Sanjeev Gupta in Arrium buyout
BILLIONAIRE industrialist and new owner of Arrium, Sanjeev Gupta, has saved thousands of jobs in Whyalla but says he did not buy the steelworks to solicit gratitude. It’s all about opportunity.
BILLIONAIRE industrialist and new owner of Arrium, Sanjeev Gupta, may have saved thousands of jobs in Whyalla but says he did not buy the steelworks in the regional city to solicit gratitude.
“I see an opportunity, I see that I can make a difference and I can make my business more successful and I pursue it,” he says.
Gupta, 45, won a bidding contest over a rival offer from a South Korean consortium to buy ailing steel producer Arrium in Whyalla, located about 380km north of Adelaide.
The flamboyant Indian-born and British based businessman promised to turn the ageing steel plant “green” by sourcing electricity from renewables and pumped hydro.
He says a complete review of the steel plant’s energy is key to making the plant viable and making a return on investment.
Gupta’s investment saves about 2500 jobs in Whyalla directly, and thousands more throughout the supply chain.
A study soon after Arrium went into administration in April 2016, found that up to $530 million and 3940 jobs would have been lost from Whyalla’s economy if Arrium’s steelmaking and mining operations in the area ceased to exist, plunging the town of 22,000 people into an economic and social crisis.
It’s not the first time Gupta has saved thousands of jobs. He has rescued 25 steel mills, car plants and engineering workshops in Britain from closure, even paying some workers half their wages while negotiating complex deals to keep ailing businesses operating.
After spending many years of his life touring steel towns around Scotland, Wales and England, Gupta said Whyalla was not dissimilar to its northern hemisphere counterparts.
He says the opportunity to buy the plant proved too compelling to overlook.
“What drew me in was the clear and compelling opportunity, where I could see a business that could most definitely be turned around with the right management and the right investment,” Gupta says.
“It was a business that everyone was writing off.
“That was the kind of challenge that draws me, where everyone else says it can’t be done.”