On October 15, Tata Steel Europe issued a statement saying that it had entered into an understanding with Geneva-based Klesch Group to potentially sell its long products division to the latter, after a due diligence process. Tata Steel Europe's chief executive Karl Koehler said in the statement that the company needed "capital and expertise" to accelerate the pace of innovation on advanced steel solutions through which it wanted to become a premium, customer-centred steel company. "We have therefore decided to concentrate our resources mainly on our strip products activities, where we have greater cross-European production and technological synergies," Koehler said. The long products division's primary asset is a 4.5 million tonnes (mt) per annum steel mill located in Scunthorpe, UK. The business has other associated facilities in Scotland, France and Germany. The steel mill in Scunthorpe produced 3.2 mt of liquid steel in FY14, around a fifth of Tata Steel Europe's total liquid steel production.