Roughly 500 pension scheme members and 400 TSPP employees after the British Steel subsidiary have been sold to a French engineering giant.
Systra, which has been discussing the possibility of buying the infrastructure design consultancy TSP Projects (TSPP) for three months already, has finally closed the deal to buy the firm together with its £70m-plus pension liabilities.
The Official Receiver, the firm that has been managing British Steel since it collapsed into compulsory liquidation in May, has confirmed already confirmed the deal and said that Systra and British Steel has successfully drafted an agreement.
“TSP Projects has a new owner, International mass transit, mobility, and infrastructure company SYSTRA. From today TSP Projects will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SYSTRA Ltd and will be known as TSP Projects a SYSTRA company,” reads a Tweet from TSP Projects’ official Twitter account announcing the new sale.
The company has made it clear that the sale of TSP Projects has no impact on the upcoming sale of British Steel’s wider business, including its steelwork venture in Scunthorpe, to Ataer Holdings, a subsidiary of Turkey’s military pension fund.
“The sale of TSPP’s shares to Systra Ltd – the UK subsidiary of French-based Systra Group – will expand Systra’s footprint in the UK and preserve over 400 jobs at TSPP,” the Official Receiver said in a statement regarding the sale.
Because of the new dale, roughly 500 pension scheme members and 400 TSPP employees, many of which are based in the York headquarters of the company, has been secured their tenure and their pension benefits.
TSPP has contracts to work on railway systems at Gatwick Airport and broader infrastructure design in aviation, construction, energy, and security, with its biggest client, Network Rail, Siemens and Costain, leading the line.
British Steel’s collapse into insolvency came two weeks after Greg Clark, the then business secretary, handed a £120m government loan to the company, in order to meet the obligations outlined by the EU in a scheme for industrial polluters.
