Tata Steel May Delay Port Talbot Plant Sale, Shares Slump
Tata Steel shares slumped over 5 per cent on Thursday amid a media report that India's biggest steel producer will delay the sale of its Port Talbot plant in the UK. The Port Talbot steel plant - Britain's biggest - has been making losses, forcing Tata Steel to put it up on sale earlier this year.
Tata Steel will announce the sale of some of its speciality businesses in Britain but further delay a decision on the future of its Port Talbot plant, the BBC reported. According to reports, Tata Steel's board is meeting in Mumbai tomorrow to discuss the issue.
According to the BBC report, the Brexit vote had partly caused the delay in selling the Port Talbot facility in southern Wales.
"The delay will be nominally to do two things: one, to assess the impact of Brexit while they mull that over and secondly to see whether there is any result on what can be done about the pension fund," the BBC report said.
Tata Steel had in March said that it will exit its loss-making British business. Following the announcement, Tata Steel had sold its Scunthorpe steel plant in UK to London-based Greybull Capital for just 1 pound.
Tata Steel shares closed 4.8 per cent lower at Rs 317.70 on the National Stock Exchange. The stock underperformed the broader markets that ended flat. Tata Steel was the top loser in the 50-share Nifty benchmark.
