According to RBC, the European Commission will rule on the transaction between Evraz Group and ALROSA to buy a 51% stake in Timir, an iron-ore mining project in South Yakutia.
The deal between the companies is reviewed under the so-called simplified procedure to check mergers and acquisitions; in other words, the European Commission will just announce its decision, without explaining the reasons behind. The case dealing with the acquisition of Timir’s shares was submitted to the antitrust department of the European Union on November 24, 2011.
On October 12, 2011 Evraz said that they were going to complete the deal with ALROSA for purchasing 51% in Timir in the near future.
In April 2010, ALROSA reported they were interested in attracting a major strategic investor to the capital of Timir from a roster of international and Russian companies that had experience in the development of iron ore deposits and free production capacities to manufacture steel. Evraz examined the possibility of joining the project. In April 2011, Alexander Abramov, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Evraz, when asked whether his company was interested in the offer made by ALROSA to sell 51% in Timir, noted that Evraz had many questions related to the documents for this iron-ore deposit.
OAO GMK Timir was established in September 2008 and its main shareholder is ALROSA. The company is currently in charge of the issues related to the development of the geological project for the iron-ore deposits of South Yakutia - Tayozhnoe, Desovskoe, Tarynnahskoe and Gorkitskoe.
Evraz Group is a vertically integrated steel and mining company. It includes three major Russian steel works: Nijnetagilski, Zapadno-Sibirski and Novokuznetski integrated iron-and-steel works, as well as such companies as Evraz Palini e Bertoli in Italy, Evraz Vitkovice Steel in the Czech Republic, Evraz Inc. NA, combining production in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, the company owns metallurgical and ore assets in Ukraine and also South Africa's Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corporation.
In October 2011, the Luxembourg Evraz Group announced its intention to change its residence for Great Britain. Evraz Plc. intends to include its securities in the calculation of the prestigious FTSE 100 index starting from December 2011.
