More than 1,000 jobs at British steel-trading giant Stemcor have been saved after lenders agreed to a $1.5bn (£1bn) debt “haircut” following months of negotiations.

Workers at Stemcor, one of Britain’s largest private companies, had faced a potentially similar fate to those recently left without jobs at steel producers SSI and Tata.

But in what will be seen as a rare ray of light in the troubled British steel sector, it is understood that 95pc of senior lenders to Stemcor have agreed to back a new scheme to restructure the debt and split the company in two.

The agreement, which has High Court backing, means the creditors have taken a $1.5bn haircut, with their original exposure of $3.1bn being reduced to closer to $1.6bn following a debt for equity swap.

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The Telegraph