LONDON: British ministers have rejected a request from mining magnate Sanjeev Gupta for a 170 million pound emergency loan to prevent his group, GFG Alliance, from collapsing, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

GFG, a holding company for Gupta's assets, was the biggest recipient of financing from Greensill, a British financing company, which filed for insolvency earlier in March. The British government wrote back to Gupta formally rejecting the request last week due to multiple concerns, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the situation. GFG and the government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report.

The conglomerate had been in talks with administrators of its former financial backer Greensill on a so-called standstill agreement.

Last week, Reuters reported that GFG secured a loan from Trafigura in 2018 by agreeing a six-year deal to sell aluminium to the commodity trader at a discount to market prices.