new delhi indias largest steel producer jsw steel is considering a bid to buy liberty steel in britain as well as mills elsewhere two people familiar with the matter told reuters as wouldbe buyers circle sanjeev guptas global commodities empirejsws interest which extends to plants including guptas adhunik steel mill in india could mark yet another chapter for britains steel industry which has been privatised and sold to overseas buyers as its preeminence slid in lockstep with the countrys manufacturing mightin a statement on saturday jsw steel said its focus remained in india for now and it was not looking at acquiring any overseas assetsa sale would chip away at guptas sprawling network of businesses comprising hundreds of privately held companies with interests spanning steel aluminium mining financial services and real estate built up over years of acquisitionsgupta has been scrambling to refinance after his goto source of funding british supply chain finance firm greensill filed for insolvency in march britains serious fraud office said this month that it was investigating guptas businesses including their links to greensillalthough jsw steel part of the metalstocement conglomerate jsw group controlled by billionaire sajjan jindal was interested in bidding one of the sources said there were obstacles to any deal including navigating the fallout from brexit as well as indias coronavirus crisisand no final decision had been taken on whether to bid for what the source described as a surprise packagethe due diligence has not yet started after brexit it will not be easy to operate these assets he saida spokesman for gfg said it continues to serve its customers around the world and is making progress in the refinancing of its operations which are benefiting from the operational improvements it has made and the very strong steel aluminium and iron ore marketsgupta was lauded as the saviour of steel in britain who bought distressed assets in economically deprived areas his group has 35000 workers including 5000 in britain and annual revenues of 20 billionuk monitoring developmentsany change of ownership of liberty steel which employs around 3000 people in britain will be politically sensitivedarren jones who chairs the uk parliaments business energy and industrial strategy committee said he expected any buyer to require ministerial clearancesteel production can also be considered to be an important part of our economic resilience and national security he saidthe government said it was closely monitoring developments around liberty steel and continues to engage closely with the company the broader uk steel industry and trade unionsprivate equity investor endless and chinas jingye group which owns british steel were also interested in guptas business in britain said people familiar with the matterseparately commodity trader trafigura has expressed an interest in investing in gfgs aluminium smelter at dunkirk in france which is europes largest said one sourcejsw and endless did not respond to requests for comment and jingyes british steel declined to comment trafigura which provided a loan to gfgs liberty house to help finance dunkirks purchase in 2018 declined to