formerly called corus 1999 2010 type subsidiary private limited company industry steel industry founded corus group plc 1999 headquarters london united kingdom key people hans fischer ceo bimlendra jha ceo tata steel uk henrik adam cco tor farquhar executive director human resources n.k misra director finance revenue us 11.2 billion 2016 operating income us 127 million 2016 owner tata group number of employees 26 000 parent tata steel website tatasteeleurope.com tata steel europe ltd. formerly corus group plc is a steelmaking company headquartered in london united kingdom with its main operations in the united kingdom and the netherlands . corus group was formed through the merger of koninklijke hoogovens and british steel plc in 1999 and was a constituent of the ftse 100 index . it was acquired by tata of india in 2007 and renamed tata steel europe in september 2010 . at formation corus operated primary steelmaking plants blast furnace in port talbot wales and scunthorpe and teesside england and ijmuiden the netherlands with additional steelmaking facilities in rotherham england electric arc furnace as well as downstream steel production of both long and flat steel . profitability at the business was affected by the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007 08 see great recession the teesside plant was mothballed and sold in 2009 2010 ; the long products division including the steelworks at scunthorpe was sold for a nominal sum to greybull capital in april 2016 . contents 1 history 1.1 background corus 1.2 takeover by tata steel 1.3 2007 2014 1.4 sale of uk operations 2014 present 2 operations 2.1 former operations 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit background corus edit see also british steel plc and koninklijke hoogovens british steel corp. was a large british steel producer consisting of the assets of former private companies which had been nationalised on 28 july 1967 by the labour party government of harold wilson . on 5 december 1988 the company was privatised as a result of the british steel act 1988 . koninklijke hoogovens was a dutch steel producer founded in 1918 located in ijmuiden . in october 1999 british steel merged with koninklijke hoogovens to form corus group . at formation the steel company was the largest in europe and the third largest worldwide . 1 the french steel company sogerail specialised in rail manufacture was acquired in 1999 shortly before the merger by bsc for 83 million . 2 in 2001 corus announced it was to cut 6 050 jobs between 2001 and 2003 . 3 in 2003 corus became the sole owner of segal a galvanizing company established 1983 as a joint venture . 4 in march 2006 corus announced that it had agreed to sell its aluminium rolled products and extrusions businesses to aleris international inc. for 728million 572 million . corus was to retain its smelting operations and supply aleris under a long term agreement . on 1 august the sale to aleris europe was completed . 5 6 the sale took place in may 2006 . 7 in 2006 the mannstaedt works troisdorf germany special profiles acquired by bsc in 1990 was sold to georgsmarienh tte gmh holding . 8 9 takeover by tata steel edit on 20 october 2006 corus announced that it had accepted at 4.3 billion 8.1 billion offer from tata steel ; a valuation of 4.55 per share . the combination of corus 18.18 mt pa and tata 4.4 mt pa would create the fifth largest steelmaking company worldwide . 10 tata surprised the credit default swap segment of the derivative markets by deciding to raise 6.17 billion of debt for the deal through a new subsidiary of corus called tata steel uk rather than by raising the debt itself . tata s security credit rating was investment grade whereas the new subsidiary may not be . the higher risk associated with raising debt through a subsidiary with a lower credit rating prompted fitch ratings to downgrade its rating of the credit swap risks in the takeover to negative . fitch also stated that corus responsibility for the debt may lead to corus own unsecured debt rating being downgraded . this does not affect the rating of bonds issued by corus which are secured debt . 11 not in citation given on 19 november 2006 the brazilian steel company companhia sider rgica nacional csn launched a counter offer for corus at a higher valuation of 4.75 per share . 12 csn and corus had previously discussed a merger in 2002 13 cancelled late 2002 ; 14 15 csn s iron ore assets would provide synergy with corus s need to import ore . 12 subsequently tata submitted an improved bid at 5.00 per share followed by an improved bid from csn at 5.15 per share which was accepted by the board of corus on 11 december 2007 . on 19 december 2006 the uk body the panel on takeovers and mergers announced a close date for bidding of 30 january 2007 . 16 on 30 31 january an auction was held by the panel for corus s shares with tata outbidding csn at 6.08 vs 6.03 per share . csn s bid had been supported by goldman sachs whilst tata s was supported by abn amro rothschilds and deutsche bank . 17 18 2007 2014 edit in january 2009 corus announced job cuts of 1 000 in the netherlands and 2 500 in the uk due the economic downturn see great recession and consequent reduction of steel demand . cuts included cessation mothballing of production at a hot strip mill in llanwern wales 600 jobs as well as major jobs losses up to 700 at the engineering steel production site in rotherham . corus also closed down its defined benefit pension scheme to new members . 19 in late 2009 corus announced the mothballing of the teesside cast products plant teesside blast furnaces following the unexpected cancellation of 10 year contracts with marcegaglia italy signed 2004 . corus s workforce was expected to be reduced by approximately 1 700 as a result ; 20 the plant had been identified as surplus to requirements in 2003 with corus s own steel requirements to be supplied from port talbot and scunthorpe with teesside cast products to seek external markets for its steel slab . 21 22 partial mothballing took place in early 2010 . in mid 2010 the company reached prelimary agreement to sell the plant to thai steel producer ssi . the plant was sold in february 2011 for 300 million . 21 in september 2010 corus announced that it was changing its name to tata steel europe and adopting the tata logo . 23 in july 2012 tata steel were fined 500 000 over the 2006 death of worker kevin downey at their port talbot plant . 24 engulfed in steam and left disorientated during a night shift downey died after wandering into a channel of molten slag heated to 1500 c. 24 on 23 november 2012 tata steel europe announced that as a result of restructuring proposals there would be a net loss of 900 jobs in the uk . 25 sale of uk operations 2014 present edit by late 2014 tata group remained 13 billion in debt which had increased following the acquisition of corus in 2007 due to reduced demand in europe see financial crisis of 2007 08 and great recession . as a result the company sought to reduce liabilities the european long products division was offered in sale to klesch group . 26 the long products division employed c. 6 500 and was operating at about 60 % of its 5 million ton pa capacity ; the division included primary production at scunthorpe steelworks ; mills in teesside teesside beam mill skinningrove and darlington special profiles ; france hayange rail mill ; scotland dalzell and clydebridge and other assets including the immingham bulk terminal . 27 in late 2014 estimates for the value of the property were c. 1.4 billion . 28 in august 2015 talks on the acquisition ended unsuccessfully with klesch citing energy prices and dumping of chinese steel imports as factors against the sale . 29 30 in october 2015 the dalzell and clydebridge plants were announced to be mothballed 31 the mothballing in scotland and further reductions at scunthorpe c. 900 jobs led to 1 200 redundancies in late 2015 . 32 in late 2015 tata steel uk reached a prelimary agreement with greybull capital for it to acquire tata s european long products division 33 excluding the dalzell and clydebridge plants . 34 in early 2016 ceo karl koehler stood down to be replaced by cto hans fischer . 35 in march 2016 the sunday post report that a preliminary agreement had been reached between tata and liberty house group on the sale of the dalzell and clydesbridge plants . 36 at the end of march 2016 the tata board rejected a turnaround plan for the port talbot site and announced it would seek to sell all or part of its uk steel business . 37 38 its uk steel operations had lost 68 million in the three months to february 2016 from a profit the previous year despite rising demand a primary factor in the loss was lowered steel prices due to global imports with russia south korea and particularly china cited as dumping steel . 39 other factors mitigating against profitability included high energy costs including green taxes high business rates and oversupply low demand . 38 40 41 42 in addition the uk government had voted against increased tariffs on imported chinese steel due to its free trade policies limiting import duties to minimal amounts c. 10 % . 43 44 45 46 the daily telegraph reported that the uk government s failure to back eu attempts to increase anti dumping measure on imported steel had been the tipping point in tata s decision to exit the uk steel business . 44 the sale of the long products division to greybull capital for a nominal 1 was agreed on 11 april 2016 with greybull taking over assets and liabilities of the division . on completion of the sale greybull was to rename the business british steel . at takeover the division employed approximately 5 000 persons predominately in the uk . 47 the sale was completed end of may 2016 . 48 tata set a deadline of 28 may 2016 for bids for its remaining uk business . 49 liberty house confirmed it was to bid for tata s remaining uk assets 50 and a management backed buyout named excalibur uk also submitted a bid . 51 in early may 2016 tata stated it was considering offers from seven bidders for the whole uk business 52 taking forward only bids for the whole of the business . 53 other bidders were rumoured to be jsw steel india nucor usa hebei iron & steel group china thyssenkrupp germany private equity fund endless llp uk and greybull capital . 53 54 55 56 wilbur ross usa was also rumoured to be a late bidder for the assets . 57 in early july 2016 tata paused the sale procedure in part to assess the effect of the vote to leave the eu brexit in the uk eu membership referendum of 2016 ; 58 59 on 8 july it announced it was in discussion with other steelmakers specifically thyssenkrupp on the formation of a joint venture between their respective european steel businesses . 60 jsw steel and hebei iron & steel were also reported as potential joint venture partners . 61 in addition to the talks on a joint venture the company was also stated to be in talks to sell the pipe hartlepool and eaf specialty steel south yorkshire businesses separately . 59 operations edit blast furnace 5 at the port talbot steelworks at the beginning of 2016 tata steel europe had three