Norwegian steel group Blastr lines up new funding for SSUK bid

A Norwegian steel group which has been pursuing a bid for Britain’s third-biggest producer of the metal for most of this year has lined up new backing to get its “oven-ready” offer over the line.

Sky News has learnt that Blastr Green Steel is in talks with Aptior Capital, a 'special situations' credit fund, about helping to finance its bid to take over SSUK.

Sources close to the situation said that Blastr planned to write to British government officials this week to flesh out more details of its proposals.

Blastr has been exploring a bid for SSUK - which was part of tycoon Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty Steel empire - for more than six months.

The Norwegian group secured a period of exclusivity from the Official Receiver, who took control of SSUK after it went bust just over a year ago, but this expired in June.

Blastr remains determined, however, to clinch a takeover of the company, which employs more than 1,000 people at sites in Rotherham and Sheffield in South Yorkshire.

The sites are important to British manufacturing because of its role supplying companies in the automotive and aerospace industries.

People close to Blastr said it had now lined up a comprehensive financial proposal which included the backing of Aptior as well as other partners.

Cargill, the industrial conglomerate, and Tritax Management, a real estate firm, had also been involved in Blastr's bid earlier this year but are no longer thought to be.

Crucially, insiders said the Blastr proposal no longer envisaged requiring financial assistance, including grants, from the government, despite expectations that environmental and other liabilities associated with SSUK meant that such state funding was inevitable.

Blastr is now said to be ready to proceed to exchange of contracts to acquire SSUK as soon as this autumn.

It plans to establish a special committee of steel industry executives, including veterans Mark Cichuta, Simon Downes, and Jaap Piso, to help progress the deal.

Last week, Mark Bula, Blastr's chief executive, announced that he was stepping down after about two years in the job.

The company's finance chief, David Morant, will become CEO of BGS UK and spearhead the negotiations to buy SSUK.

Blastr had faced competition to buy the asset from Arabian Gulf Steel Industries (AGSI), which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, and 7 Steel UK, which last year bought the Allied Steel and Wire site in Cardiff from Spanish firm Celsa.

7 Steel has been vocal about its belief that its interest in SSUK is more easily deliverable than that of Blastr.

SSUK's future has been in peril for years, culminating in its collapse into compulsory liquidation in August 2025 when a High Court judge declared that it was "hopelessly insolvent".

Blastr declined to comment on the progress of its offer, while the Insolvency Service previously said: "We can confirm that the Official Receiver continues to progress bids for the sale of Speciality Steel UK.

"This process is ongoing, with the aim to complete a sale at the earliest opportunity."

The talks about the future of SSUK come weeks after British Steel was formally nationalised by the government, with the company's former Chinese owner, Jingye Group, continuing to pursue compensation.

Moves to nationalise British Steel were initiated by the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, who was reappointed to that role by Andy Burnham last month.

(c) Sky News 2026: Norwegian steel group Blastr lines up new funding for SSUK bid