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Esmark Responds to OAO Severstal Offer

06/02/2008 - Esmark says it will have a recommendation from the Esmark Board by June 13 regarding OAO Severstal's unsolicited tender offer to acquire Esmark’s outstanding common shares for $17.00 per share.

Responding to OAO Severstal's unsolicited tender offer, Esmark Inc. said that the Esmark Board of Directors will examine and consider the Severstal offer, consistent with its fiduciary duties as well as the company's obligations under its memorandum of agreement with Essar Steel Holdings Limited.
 
Severstal’s offer to acquire the outstanding shares of Esmark common stock for $17.00 per share has the full support of the United Steelworkers. The USW has already entered into an agreement with Severstal that satisfies the successorship clause in the USW’s collective bargaining agreement with Esmark; no such agreement has yet been established between the USW and Essar.
 
Esmark said it will advise shareholders on or before June 13, 2008, whether the Esmark Board recommends acceptance or rejection of the Severstal offer, expresses no opinion and remains neutral toward the Severstal offer, or is unable to take a position with respect to the Severstal offer.
 
Esmark urged its shareholders to take no action with respect to the Severstal offer until the Esmark Board makes its recommendation.
 
Esmark Inc. is a vertically integrated steel producer and distributor, combining steel production capabilities through both blast furnace and electric arc furnace technologies with the just-in-time delivery of value-added steel products to a broad customer base concentrated in the Ohio Valley and Midwest regions. Currently headquartered in Wheeling, W.Va., the company produces carbon flat-rolled products for a wide range of markets. The company's products include hot rolled, cold rolled, hot dipped galvanized, electro-galvanized, black plate and electrolytic tinplate.