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Mechel Disposes of Several Ferroalloy Assets
08/01/2013 - Mechel OAO announced the signing of an agreement for the sale of several ferroalloys assets to Turkey's Yildirim Group.
According to the agreement, Yildirim Group acquires Mechel OAO's Voskhod Mining Plant (Khromtau, Kazakhstan) and Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant (Tikhvin, Leningrad Region, Russia) for a total of US$425 million.
The buyer will pay the entire sum to Mechel OAO immediately after the deal's closure. In order to close the deal, all required approval by Kazakh and Russian regulatory agencies and both sides' corporate management agencies is due to be obtained.
Société Générale Corporate and Investment Bank, ING Bank and Dechert LLP are advising Mechel on this transaction.
"This agreement was signed in line with the strategy on restructuring the group's assets, earlier approved by our Board of Directors. The funds our company will get from this deal will help the company to deleverage and continue to finance its priority development projects," Mechel OAO's chief executive officer Evgeny Mikhel noted.
Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant – Located in Tikhvin, Leningrad Region, it is a modern enterprise with the capacity to produce up to 120,000 metric tons per annum of high-carbon ferrochrome used to produce stainless steel. As raw material, the plant uses the chrome ore concentrate produced at Voskhod mining plant.
Voskhod Mining Plant – includes a modern chrome ore mine and a beneficiation plant for further processing of the ore and producing chrome ore concentrate. Voskhod's proved and probable reserves total 20 million metric tons of ore according to JORC standards.
Yildirim Group — a Turkey-based private diversified industrial group comprising enterprises from ten different industries in various countries.
YILDIRIM Group is the owner of ETI KROM INC., Turkey's largest producer of chrome ore as well as high-quality high-carbon ferrochrome, and of VARGÖN ALLOYS AB, one of the oldest ferrochrome plants in Sweden. The Group is the world's largest hard lumpy chrome ore producer as well as the world's second largest high-quality high-carbon ferrochrome producer.
YILDIRIM GROUP's primary objective is to continue its growth trends in the chrome ore and ferrochrome markets and to strengthen its position. With this acquisition of the chrome ore assets and the concentration plant will improve YILDIRIM's production capacity to a world class level at 2.5 million tpa, with the addition of the TFP to the Group's existing production plants, Eti Krom in Turkey and Vargon Alloys AB in Sweden, YILDIRIM GROUP will be one of the main players in high carbon high quality ferrochrome production with a total installed capacity of 520,000 tpa.
YILDIRIM GROUP is a privately held company active in mining, ferroalloys and metallurgical smelting, fertilizer production and trade, port operation and logistics, shipping and shipbuilding, real estate development and private equity investment as 24% of CMA CGM, the world's third largest container shipping group. The company is also involved in the trading of coal, chartering and technical management of ships, and private equity management. It is the biggest port operator of Turkey; it owns and manages 4 ports on the Sea of Marmara in Turkey and has 50% ownership in Malta Freeport in Malta. YILDIRIM GROUP operates mostly in Asia and Europe. It is headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, and employs globally over 7,000 employees in total, mainly in Turkey.
Mechel is a leading Russian company. Its business includes four segments: mining, steel, ferroalloy and power. Mechel unites producers of coal, iron ore concentrate, nickel, ferrochrome, ferrosilicon, steel, rolled products, hardware, heat and electric power. Mechel products are marketed domestically and internationally.
