Tata to start UK sale process on Monday, says Javid

Tata Steel will begin the formal process to sell its UK plants by Monday, the BBC cited Business Secretary Sajid Javid as saying after talks with the company in India on Wednesday.

Javid said a number of parties had come forward, but only named Liberty Steel, part of the Liberty House group, led by Sanjeev Gupta.

He said Tata had told him it would allow a "reasonable amount of time" for the sale process, adding that he expected other interested parties to come forward once the formal sale process had begun.

Javid was meeting Tata chairman Cyrus Mistry for the first time since the firm announced the sale a week ago.

The Business Secretary flew to India for talks with steel maker Tata on the future of the company's Port Talbot plant amid allegations he was busy attending high profile social events as the industry entered its current crisis.

He had already been accused of taking his eye off the ball over Port Talbot by flying to Australia as Tata said it would have to sell or close the plant as steel prices slumped due to Chinese dumping.

Before he left for Mumbai, Javid said he wanted an agreement with Tata that led to a “responsible sale process”.

However, as he flew out, documents from the Cabinet Office's register of ministerial gifts, meetings and travel revealed Javid had attended a number of glamorous film premieres, plays and sports events as the situation in the industry got worse.

On December 10, Javid was hosted by Tata itself in at a dinner at the Taj Falaknuma Palace hotel in Hyderabad on a trip to promote UK higher education, but did not discuss steel.

Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, whose constituency includes Port Talbot said he expected Tata to move quite quickly, and also warned against rushing to the first buyer.

"My sense is that Tata Steel are keen to move very quickly, they want to find a buyer as quickly as possible,” told the BBC.

"I think what's absolutely critical is that the government now comes forward with a plan that will buy as much time as possible in terms of helping Tata Steel to keep going while we search for a buyer."

Liberty House steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta has expressed an interest in buying the plant, but has indicated he would only do so if there were no redundancies involved and he could convert Port Talbot's blast furnaces into electric arc furnaces.

Kinnock was wary of this condition, claiming it would “involve a reduction in production in Port Talbot and that would have a massive impact on the workforce”.