MELBOURNE (Reuters) - British tycoon Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance has expanded rapidly in recent years, spending up big on distressed steel and aluminium assets, and sees no let-up in the pace of growth.
GFG companies have spent or pledged to spend at least $4.9 billion over the past 18 months in industrial and energy assets run by its Liberty House and SIMEC energy units, according to Reuters calculations.
GFG Alliance, a $10 billion industrials, energy, banking and real estate conglomerate, also has a global property portfolio and a financing arm.
AUSTRALIA
* July 2, 2017 - GFG Alliance signs agreement to acquire deeply indebted Australian steel company Arrium Ltd and says it plans to modernise the ageing steelworks, together with Arrium's mining and steel distribution businesses. The price is not disclosed.
* Sept 2 - Liberty House says it will pump $1 billion into steel-making capacity in Australia, and plans a 100-day review of the South Australian steel plant.
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* Sept 20 - GFG Alliance agrees to buy a 50.1 percent stake in South Australia's Zen Energy, focused on solar power and battery storage, for an undisclosed sum. It plans to spend $1 billion on building out renewable power.
* Dec 18 - Renamed SIMEC ZEN Energy signs a deal to supply power to South Australia government offices, schools, hospitals and a rail line next year and 2019.
* Jan 2, 2018 - GFG Alliance wins a bid for one of two coal mines put up for sale by Glencore. The had been expected to fetch about $100 million, sources told Reuters.
* Jan 22 - South Australian government says Gupta may bid on industrial assets at General Motors Co's former Holden manufacturing site, aiming to use the equipment to build electric vehicles.
INTERNATIONAL
* Nov 23, 2016 - Rio Tinto agrees to sell its aluminium assets in Scotland to GFG Alliance for $410 million. Liberty House Group to own and develop the aluminium business and SIMEC to operate a related hydroelectric power plant.
* Feb 9 2017 - Liberty buys the specialty steel business of Tata Steel UK for 100 million pounds ($126 million).
* April 21 - Liberty agrees to buy the Georgetown Steelworks plant from Arcelor Mittal in its first major U.S. acquisition. Price not disclosed.
* July 11 - Liberty House agrees to buy a pipe mills operation in the north of England from Tata Steel for an undisclosed sum. The mills have a production capacity of over 250,000 tonnes a year.
* Sept 6 - GFG Alliance announces plan to develop a 178 MW windfarm in the Scottish highlands with a 170 million pound ($238 million) investment to power its nearby aluminium smelter, alloy wheels factory and steel mills.
* Dec 14 - GFG Alliance strikes a deal to take a 49.99 percent stake in tidal power firm Atlantis Resources marking Sanjeev Gupta's first step into the stock market.
* Dec 18 - Gupta tells Reuters in an interview that he is in talks to purchase and build more U.S.-based steel and industrial assets in 2018 with a view to listing a steel asset there.
* Jan 10, 2018 - Liberty House makes a binding offer for Rio Tinto's, aluminium smelter in Dunkirk, France, the largest in Europe. Rio Tinto says the offer is worth $500 million. A Liberty House executive tells Reuters the group would invest 2 billion euros ($2.4 bln) in Dunkirk, with plans to build an auto components factory to process the aluminium into a higher-value added product.
* Jan 26 - A French court in charge of selling troubled French steelmaker Ascometal raises questions over public funds as part of Liberty House's bid for the company. Liberty House is offering to invest 300 million euros ($370 million) in both Ascometal and its joint venture company Ascoval.
($1 = 0.7157 pounds)
($1 = 0.8104 euros)
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; editing by Richard Pullin)
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