Aartee Bright Bar Limited and Aartee Bright Bar Property Limited

A majority of Aartee Bright Bar's business and assets have been purchased out of administration, after an application to overturn the companies' administrations was dismissed earlier this month.

Aartee Bright Bar Limited and Aartee Bright Bar Property Limited (collectively, "Aartee"), a West Midlands-based producer and vendor of engineering bars and a major customer of Britain’s third-biggest steel producer, Liberty Steel, entered administration on 6 February as a result of the challenging economic environment and fluctuating steel prices.

Shortly following the appointment of Michael Magnay, Richard Fleming and Gemma Quinn of Alvarez & Marsal as Joint Administrators, GFG Alliance, which had acquired Aartee by purchasing 100% of the shares in Aartee Group Pte, sought to challenge the administration. GFG Alliance is owned by steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta, who argued that Aartee had been wrongly placed into administration by its main creditor, FGI Worldwide LLC.

Ultimately, the High Court dismissed the application to challenge the administration and ruled that the Joint Administrators should continue to discharge their duties.

Since that time, the Joint Administrators have completed a sale of a majority of Aartee's business and assets to Bradford-based Barrett Steel, reportedly saving over 170 jobs.

Aartee's Hot Rolled business is not included in the sale and will be wound up, leading to the closure of the Dudley site and the loss of 45 jobs.

The Joint Administrators have not yet rendered a report on the sale.