LONDON: Tata Steel has selected seven bidders as potential buyers of its loss-making UK activities, the Indian group has said.

“Seven expressions of interest submitted for Tata Steel’s UK business have been immediately taken forward to the next stage of the sale process,” it said in a statement released late Monday that did not identify the bidders.

Metal processing company Liberty House said earlier this month that it was putting together a formal offer for the assets, while a management buyout team was also reported to be planning a bid under the name Excalibur.

Tata Steel is Britain’s biggest steel employer and its announcement in March that it would sell has heaped pressure on PM David Cameron’s government, which is scrambling to help save thousands of jobs put at risk.

The government has said it will take a 25 per cent stake in the assets.