The Turkish army pension fund in talks to buy British Steel has been advised by a prolific City dealmaker who was sanctioned for market abuse, it has emerged.
Hannam & Partners, run by former JP Morgan trader Ian Hannam, took part in discussions between former business minister Greg Clark and Ataer Holdings in June, according to the register of MPs’ meetings.
Ataer Holdings, a subsidiary of the Turkish army pension fund Oyak, was later selected as the preferred bidder for British Steel, which went into liquidation in May, threatening nearly 5,000 jobs and the Scunthorpe steelworks.
Talks have since stalled and a period of exclusivity ended on Thursday without agreement, leaving the Official Receiver – the government employee handling the sale – free to talk to other potential buyers.
Chinese firm Jingye and Liberty House, run by the steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta, are thought to be rekindling their interest in the business.
But Ataer remains in the running, meaning parent company Oyak – the subject of trade union concerns over its links to the Turkish army engaged in conflict in Syria – could still end up owning British Steel, with Hannam’s help.
Hannam’s involvement marks a return to the fore for one of the City’s most high-profile dealmakers, renowned for his record with mergers and acquisitions, particularly in the mining sector.
The former SAS reservist played a pivotal role in landmark transactions such as the $40bn merger that created global mining giant BHP and the flotation of Xstrata, which went on to merge with Glencore.
Hannam also brought foreign firms to London that proved controversial, including the Indonesian coal miner Bumi, which became mired in a corporate governance scandal, and copper miner Kazakhmys, which faced criticism over pollution and links to the autocratic Kazakh regime.
Hannam, 63, was fined £450,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority in 2012 for passing emails containing inside information about the oil company Heritage Oil to the natural resources minister of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Supporters of Hannam, who included Conservative MP David Davis, claimed the regulator had gone too far in an effort to make a public show of its stern approach to the control of inside information.
Hannam failed in his legal challenge to the decisionin 2014, with the FCA warning traders that the ruling “should leave market participants in no doubt that casual and uncontrolled distribution of inside information is not acceptable in today’s markets”.
Hannam & Partners declined to comment on whether it was still involved in the ongoing British Steel talks, now overseen by the new business secretary, Andrea Leadsom, and steel minister Nadhim Zahawi.
Details of Leadsom and Zahawi’s recent meetings have yet to be published and it is unclear whether they have also met Ataer or Hannam.