Sanjeev Gupta’s InfraBuild is paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fees to the British industrialist’s other companies as payment for “shared services”, just one part of a complex series of transactions between the Australian company and the businessman’s broader, ailing steel empire.

In extensive disclosures made to potential bondholders, InfraBuild details that it has also paid more than $1.1 billion to Mr Gupta’s Whyalla steelworks for billet – metal bars which are processed into other products – in the last three years under an agreement that allows payment before any delivery.