British steelmaker Liberty Steel’s UK facilities have a “viable future”, the government insisted on Tuesday, one day after struggling parent group GFG Alliance put some of them up for sale.

Liberty had launched a major restructuring on Monday to sell part of its assets following the collapse of insolvent financier Greensill.

GFG, owned by Indian-British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, wants to sell Liberty’s plant in Stocksbridge, northern England, and other facilities which together employ 1,500 staff.

“The issue that Liberty had was to do with financial engineering, the opaque bit, if you like, of GFG, the leverage, the finance, the debt they had incurred,” Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng told a parliamentary committee investigating the company’s plight. “Without that, I think there is a healthy interest in the assets and I think they have a viable future,” he added.

The Greensill affair shone a light on Gupta’s business practices, with the UK government describing the GFG structure as “very opaque” after declining to rescue it earlier this year.

Kwarteng stressed on Tuesday that all options were on the table for Liberty’s steel plants – but nationalisation was the least likely for the government. “I don’t rule anything in or out, but I think that nationalisation – of all the options – is the least likely.”

I don’t rule anything in or out, but I think that nationalisation – of all the options – is the least likely- Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng

Greensill’s dramatic demise sparked fears for the future of GFG’s 35,000 staff worldwide – which includes 5,000 at Liberty Steel in Britain.

GFG had been Greensill’s biggest customer at the time of the finance giant’s high-profile collapse in March.