ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
The South Australian government has declared that embattled steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta is now officially on the chopping block, announcing the forced administration of his OneSteel Manufacturing over millions in unpaid royalties.
Announcing the decision on Wednesday, the South Australia Government made it clear that patience had run out.
“There’s a barrel with Gupta’s name on it,” a government spokesperson said.
“We gave him every chance. We marched for him. We played the bagpipes. But it turns out the only thing getting melted down at Whyalla is our goodwill.”
Gupta, the UK-based industrialist who once declared the rust belt town his spiritual home, has spent the past several years testing the limits of South Australian hospitality. After buying the Whyalla steelworks off the collapsed Arrium in 2017, he promised a future of “green steel” and revitalisation. Instead, he promptly moved to Sydney, where he hosted lavish parties in a rented harbourside mansion and entertained Australia’s business, cultural and political elite (include this masthead’s editor Clancy Overell) while the blast furnace at Whyalla sputtered and workers went unpaid.
The final straw came in March last year when the steelworks suffered a major malfunction, bringing production to a crawl while Gupta continued to buy multimillion-dollar properties and renovate his Potts Point mansion. Furious Whyalla locals watched as their supposed saviour touched down in a private jet for a four-hour visit before flying out again to attend a footy game.
Despite a last-ditch media blitz and a surprise Davos appearance where he insisted the steelworks was turning a corner, the South Australian government has had enough. Now, insolvency firm KordaMentha, tasked with untangling Gupta’s financial wreckage, will oversee the fate of the Whyalla plant, just as they did seven years ago when Arrium collapsed.
Gupta is now facing the prospect of suffering a uniquely South Australian fate. Getting crammed into a barrel, covered with lime and stored in a disused bank vault.
“Unless we get our royalties, unless the workers get what’s owed to them, that’s what’s waiting for him if his Dassault Falcon ever touches down here again,” continued the spokesperson.
“Some might think it’s distasteful. But we South Australians, we know. And we don’t forget.”
More to come.
