ArcelorMittal, the multinational steel manufacturing giant, has recently received approval from the European Commission for the sale of various steel-making assets in Europe to Liberty House Group.

Sources with knowledge of the matter commented that the assets comprising the divestment package are the ArcelorMittal Galati in Romania, ArcelorMittal Piombino in Italy, ArcelorMittal Ostrava Czech Republic, ArcelorMittal Skopje in Macedonia, ArcelorMittal Dudelange in Luxembourg, and assets at ArcelorMittal Liege in Belgium.

The closing of this transaction is expected to happen before the end of the first half of this year, sources informed.

For the uninitiated, ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading mining and steel company, having its presence in 60 nations and an industrial operations in 17 countries. In addition, the firm has also proposed to take over the debt-burdened Essar Steel through an insolvency auction.

Sources mentioned that recently, ArcelorMittal was also recognized as a Steel Sustainability Champion for the second consecutive year, announced by the World Steel Association at its official board meeting in Madrid, Spain.

Apparently, the award was a result of its commitment towards enabling a healthy and safe environment for steelworkers and its dual success in Steelie Awards of 2018, where ArcelorMittal had won the award of Excellence in life cycle assessment and Excellence in sustainability categories.

In October 2018, the company had reportedly signed a pact to sell four of its European steel plants to Liberty House. These four assets were a part of disinvestment package that ArcelorMittal had secured with the European Commission (EU) associated with its acquisition of Ilva SpA, sources confirmed.

Further from the sources, Liberty house, part of the international GFG Alliance of Sanjeev Gupta, had also introduced a conditional agreement to purchase the four European steel plants of ArcelorMittal, which employed over 12,500 people. The acquisitions were expected to increase Liberty’s worldwide metal manufacturing capacity by more than twice.