A cross-border team of Dechert lawyers is advising Russia’s Mechel OAO (NYSE:MTL; “Mechel”) on its planned disposal of several ferroalloy assets to Turkey’s Yildirim Group. According to the agreement, which was announced today, Yildirim Group will acquire Mechel’s Voskhod Mining Plant (in Khromtau, Kazakhstan) and Tikhvin Ferroalloy Plant (in Tikhvin, Leningrad Region, Russia) for a total of U.S.$425 million. Yildrim Group was the winning bidder in a tender process to acquire the assets. The deal is subject to receipt by the parties of certain governmental approvals in Russia and Kazakhstan, including the waiver of the Kazakhstan state pre-emptive right, on which Dechert is also currently advising.
Société Générale Corporate and Investment Bank and ING Bank are also advising Mechel on this transaction.
The Dechert corporate team advising Mechel is being led by Moscow partner Laura Brank, head of Dechert’s Russia Practice, assisted by national partner Evgenia Korotkova, counsel Olga Watson, and associates Irina Kulyba and Kirill Skopchevskiy. Almaty national partner Victor Mokrousov and associates Nadezhda Oparina and Yelena Pestereva are advising on various Kazakhstan law matters, including regulatory issues. Additional counsel is being provided by London partners Corinna Mitchell and Mark Stapleton, and London associate Liselot Ronz.
Mechel is an international mining and steel company that employs over 80,000 people. Its products are marketed in Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Africa. Mechel’s business includes producers of coal, iron ore concentrate, steel, rolled products, ferroalloys, heat and electric power. All of its enterprises work in a single production chain, from raw materials to high value-added products.
Yildirim Group is a Turkey-based private diversified industrial group comprising enterprises from ten different industries in various countries. It owns ETI KROM INC., Turkey’s largest producer of chrome ore as well as high-quality high-carbon ferrochrome, and Vargön Alloys AB, one of the oldest ferrochrome plants in Sweden. Yildirim 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.
