From its sparse, four-sentence website to a discreet London office with no sign or name on the doorbell, Greybull Capital LLP has embodied the “private” in private equity. That changed at a stroke with the purchase of the Scunthorpe steelworks in England as part of a 400 million-pound ($582 million) rescue plan that casts the low-key family firm as a potential savior of Britain’s steel industry. The deal made front-page news across the U.K. and one of Greybull’s founders, 44-year-old Frenchman Marc Meyohas, soon found himself before a parliamentary committee explaining the firm’s plans and its track record as a turnaround specialist. At stake are about 4,800 jobs at plants in Scunthorpe, Teeside and northern France as the British steel industry faces the exit of Indian-owned Tata Steel Ltd., its biggest investor, amid the lowest prices for the commodity in 10 years. “We are entrepreneurs at heart, we take big risks and not all the risks work out,” Meyohas said in a phone interview last month from Scunthorpe in northern England, where he’s been meeting with workers, locals, the unions and politicians. “It’s purely family money; we don’t manage institutional capital. As a result you can move quickly.” Despite its low profile, Greybull has become a major investor in British industries, including a 2014 deal to buy 90 percent of U.K. airline Monarch Airlines Ltd. and last year’s acquisition of 140 supermarkets from Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc. Meyohas declined to say how much money they manage. Steel Demand In the latest turnaround plan, Greybull is counting on domestic demand for steel in the U.K., tied to government spending on infrastructure projects like the $62 billion High-Speed Two rail network due to start construction next year. The firm plans to rename the businesses acquired from India’s Tata Steel to British Steel, recalling the name of the state company that once owned almost all the country’s plants. They make 2.8 million tons of steel a year and their products have been used in buildings including The Shard skyscraper in London, Hudson Yards in New York and Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. “It’s a very challenging business to be getting into at this stage,” Vivienne Lloyd, an analyst at Macquarie Group Ltd. in London, said by phone Tuesday. “The global steel picture is one of quite fierce headwinds in the aftermath of the Chinese slowdown.” Greybull was incorporated in 2010 in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. by Marc Meyohas, his brother Nathaniel, 42, and friend Richard Perlhagen, 35. “We felt there was going to be opportunities for providing capital to companies that wanted to develop themselves—either grow or restructure—particularly after the Lehman crisis, when a lot of banks and capital providers decided to shut up shop,” Meyohas said. Lehman Pedigree Marc Meyohas graduated from the University of Manchester in 1993 with a degree in economics. Prior to founding Greybull, he headed Cityspace Ltd., a technology consultant that was later renamed Kizoom. Nathaniel is a former Lehman Brothers banker who later was the co-head of European investments for global private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners. Perlhagen worked in venture capital with SEB Merchant Banking in London after working for his family investment office Volati in Stockholm. Another former Lehman banker, Daniel Goldstein, is the fourth partner at the business, joining in 2013. ‘Serious Capital’ “They are serious guys; they have serious capital behind them,” Noah Bulkin, founder of London-based private-equity firm May Capital LLP who has known the Meyohas brothers since the late 1990s, said in a phone interview without elaborating on the number. “They obviously do turnaround deals, so not every deal is going to be an immediate massive success -– they operate in a risky part of the market. They’ve done highly credible deals.” The 2014 investment in British short-haul airline Monarch Group is showing signs of a successful turnaround. Greybull committed to invest 125 million pounds in the carrier and implemented a deep cost-cutting plan. Monarch CEO Andrew Swaffield said in a statement in December that the plan saved the airline 200 million pounds in annual costs. The company said it expected underlying pretax earnings of about 40 million pounds for the year through October 2015, a turnaround of about 130 million pounds from a year-earlier loss. Monarch workers were asked to take a cut in pay as part of the takeover, similar to the plan for Scunthorpe. The British Airline Pilots’ Association and Unite, which represents cabin crew and engineers, backed pay cuts to protect the company’s 3,200 jobs. Monarch is exploring a sale and could attract interest from competitors including EasyJet Plc, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because talks are private. Monarch said it’s working with Deutsche Bank AG to evaluate “both inbound and outbound opportunities.” A representative of EasyJet declined to comment on Monarch. At the other end of the spectrum is a transaction that still rankles Meyohas: Greybull’s involvement in the ultimately failed revival of British electronics retailer Comet, which filed for insolvency less than a year after private-equity firm OpCapita LLP bought the unprofitable 248-store chain for 2 pounds. Bit Player Greybull was a bit player in the deal, owning less than 5 percent of the company, according to Meyohas. In April, he rejected reports put to him by U.K. lawmakers that his firm had a more active role in that deal. “We were obviously saddened by what happened to Comet, but had nothing really material to do with what happened to Comet,” he told the committee on April 28. British Steel “is our deal, our name is on the door plate. We will be directors of that business and we will do all we can to make sure it has a very successful future.” With cheap exports from China driving down steel prices Tata Steel said in March that it plans to sell all its U.K. operations after years of losses, putting 15,000 jobs at risk. Greybull purchased the group of mills for a symbolic 1 pound. Tata is still looking to sell sites including Port Talbot, the U.K.’s largest steelworks, as well as Newport and Rotherham. Union Help While the dire state of the U.K. steel industry presents a challenge, it also could make it easier for Greybull to win compromises to make the deal work. Workers at Scunthorpe, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) from London, have agreed to a one-year, 3 percent pay cut to help turn the business around. Critical to the success of Greybull’s Tata deal is the fact that pension liabilities remain with Tata. “There were certainly concerns from our members on the basis of ‘look what happened at Comet,”’ according to Harish Patel, the national officer for steel of trade union Unite. “But at the end of the day, there wasn’t a Plan B for us. We needed to explore the avenue thoroughly and make sure that we got the right assurances from Greybull, which we have.” As well as winning union backing, Greybull has gained the support of the local member of parliament, Nic Dakin, who has met with the company to discuss the deal. “Everybody is very positive about the work they have been doing,” Dakin said in a phone interview last month. “Obviously, as always, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.”