Cerillion Regulatory News (CER)

14 Aug 2007 07:33

OAO Severstal14 August 2007 SEVERSTAL For Immediate Release14 August 2007 Severstal acquires 22% of the issued shares of Celtic Resources Holdings Plc ZAO Severstal Resurs ("Severstal Resurs"), which manages the mining assets ofOAO Severstal, announces that Severstal's subsidiary Bluecone Limited has agreedto acquire for cash approximately 12.3 million common shares of Celtic ResourcesHoldings Plc ("Celtic"). The purchase represents approximately 22% of the issuedshares of Celtic on a fully diluted basis. The shares were acquired from AtonInternational Ltd. Mr. Roman Deniskin, CEO of Severstal Resurs, said: "Severstal Resurs believesthe purchase of a 22% stake in Celtic, with its attractive mining assets inRussia and Kazakhstan, to be an excellent investment. We think particularlyhighly of Celtic's management. This share acquisition is wholly consistent withSeverStal Resurs' strategy to diversify within mining in alliances withinternationally reputable partners". Severstal Resurs manages all of Severstal's mining operations. Severstal Resursconsists of four high-quality mining complexes in northwest Russia and inWestern Siberia producing iron ore and coking coal, and is the second largestproducer of pellets and coking coal in Russia. In 2006 Severstal's Mining division produced 5.4 million tons of coalconcentrate, 2.2 million tons of coking coal, 2.1 million tons of steam coal,9.5 million tons of iron ore pellets and 4.5 million tons of iron oreconcentrate. The reserves and resources of the company were estimated by IMCLimited to be 1.8 billion tonnes of iron ore as at 1 January 2006 and 0.7billion tonnes of coal as at 1 April 2006. The scrap business of Severstal Resurs consists of a number of scrap metal yardsin the Northwestern, central and Southern parts of Russia. The total processingcapacity is 1.3 million tonnes of scrap per year. Scrap is delivered to Europeand Middle East through the ports of St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk,Rostov and Taganrog. Severstal is an international steel producer with a listing on the RussianTrading System and the London Stock Exchange. Incorporated in 1993, the companyfocuses on high value-added and unique niche products and has a successful trackrecord of acquiring and integrating high-quality assets in North America andEurope. Severstal's mining assets in Russia are securing its supplies of rawmaterials. In 2006 Severstal produced 17.6 million tonnes of steel and hadrevenues of $12.4bn, PBT of $1.8bn and EPS of $1.27. Celtic Resources Holdings Plc (Celtic) operates Suzdal and Zherek gold mines inEastern Kazahstan and produces gold using bioleaching BIOX technology. TheCompany also has a 50% stake in the Shorskoye operating molybdenum mine inKazakhstan as well as a 50% stake in the copper/gold project in Chelyabinskregion in Russia. The Company produced about 1.9 tons of gold in 2006. Shares in Celtic have been listed on the AIM market in London since October2002. The Company is incorporated and registered in Ireland. For further information please contact:Severstal, Investor Relations - RussiaDmitry DruzhininSeverstal, Public Relations - RussiaNatalia Ivanova+7 495 540 77 66Severstal Resurs, Public Relations - RussiaSergey Loktionov+7 495 981 09 10Tulchan Communications - UKDominic Fry/Tom Murray+44 207 353 4200 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange