Last checked at 30 Jun 2021 07:00
30 June 2021
Ferrexpo plc
("Ferrexpo", "the Company" or the "Group")
Early Repayment of Debt Facility
The Board of Directors of Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) is pleased to announce that it has approved the early repayment of its outstanding pre-export finance facility ('PXF facility'), with repayment to take place today and subsequent cancellation of the facility. The PXF facility agreement was signed in 2018 and repayment was scheduled to take place quarterly between 2020 and 2022. As at 31 December 2020, the Group had US$257 million of debt drawn on its PXF facility.
Early repayment of this facility reflects the strong performance of the Group's operations, including recent growth in both the Group's production volumes and product quality, following the recent completion of investments throughout the Group's operations. Through previous investments, and the Group's ongoing growth programme, the Group is able to take full advantage of recent strength in the iron ore market, with particular demand at this time for high grade iron ores such as the Group's 65% Fe iron ore pellets, which represented 99% of total production in 2020 (2019: 96%).
Jim North, Interim CEO of Ferrexpo, commented:
"Today's news regarding early repayment of the PXF facility reflects the continued strong operational performance of the Group and market conditions currently underpinning the iron ore market, whilst also representing prudent cash management practice.
Pleasingly, this will bring an end to the Group's deleveraging programme. Following this announcement, we are well positioned to continue to invest in our assets, delivering further growth in pellet volumes and pellet quality, whilst also continuing to deliver returns to shareholders."
Information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under article 7 of the UK version of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (2014/596 EU) which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. The person responsible for making this notification is Mark Gregory, Company Secretary.
For further information, please contact:
Ferrexpo: | ||
Rob Simmons | r.simmons@ferrexpo.ch | +44 207 389 8305 |
Tavistock: | ||
Jos Simson Gareth Tredway Annabel de Morgan
| ferrexpo@tavistock.co.uk | +44 207 920 3150 +44 778 855 4035 |
Notes to Editors:
Ferrexpo is a Swiss headquartered iron ore company with assets in Ukraine. It has been mining, processing and selling high quality iron ore pellets to the global steel industry for over 40 years. In 2020, the Group produced 11.2 Mt of iron ore pellets, a 7% increase on the prior year. The Company is ranked as the world's 3rd largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry with a market share of approximately 9%. Ferrexpo has a diversified customer base supplying steel mills in Austria, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Vietnam and America. Ferrexpo has a premium listing on the main market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker FXPO. For further information, please visit www.ferrexpo.com.