THE Scottish Government does not intend to take over the Scottish businesses threatened by the collapse of Greensill Capital, Fiona Hyslop has said.
The economy secretary told MSPs there were no current plans to nationalise the plants run by Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, which relied on Greensill for its financing.
However all options would be considered given the fast-moving situation.
GFG businesses own the Dalzell and Clydebridge steelworks, the Lochaber aluminium smelter, a hydroelectric power station at Fort William and Jahama Highland Estates.
Greensill’s collapse into administration in March has raised fears thousands of UK jobs in GFG’s Liberty Steel firm in particular could be at risk, with 340 threatened in Scotland.
In an urgent question at Holyrood, Labour MSP Monica Lennon asked what SNP ministers were doing “to mitigate the risks to jobs, vital industries and public finances in Scotland” as a result, given the state support and guarantees given to GFG in Scotland.
She also asked if the Government would bring the Lochaber smelter under public ownership if the GFG Alliance was unable to find new sources of finance.
Ms Hyslop replied: “Our current plans are not to take into public ownership any of the sites.
“However, as we did when we intervened to save the sites previously, we will look at all options as required, when the situations present themselves.
“As of now we are monitoring the situation. We are keeping in very close contact wih the management and the workforce and the unions in both [Dalzell and Lochaber] sites.
“We have confidence in those sites, we recognise the skills in those sites, and we recognise the strategic assets that those sites represent.”
In the past, the Scottish Government has stepped in to save Prestwick Airport, BiFab engineers and the Ferguson Marine shipyard, but all at significant public expense.
The Financial Conduct Authority last week said it is was formally investigating Greensill Capital UK after receiving allegations of “potentially criminal” actions at the firm, which hired former Tory Prime Minister David Cameron as an adviser and lobbyist.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel