METALLOINVEST announces financial results for the full year 2011

METALLOINVEST, a leading global iron ore and HBI producer based in Russia, today announces its audited IFRS financial results for the full year ended December 31, 2011.

Financial Highlights

- Consolidated revenues US$ 9,919 million (+38.7% y-o-y)
- EBITDA US$ 3,873 million (+49.7%)
- EBITDA margin 39.0% vs. 36.2% in 2010
- Net Income US$ 1,432 million (+19.4%)
- Net Debt[1] US$ 4,432 million (+11.0%)
- Net Debt / EBITDA 1.1x vs. 1.5x in 2010
- Capital expenditures US$ 512 million (+30.6%)
- Total assets US$ 10,465 million (+27.3%)
_______
[1] Net Debt is accounted as long-term borrowings plus short-term borrowings minus cash and cash equivalents

Production Highlights

- Iron ore 40.1 million tonnes (+9.0% y-o-y)
- Pellets 22.4 million tonnes (+2.0%)
- HBI/DRI 5.2 million tonnes (+9.5%)
- Hot metal 2.5 million tonnes (-6.1%)
- Crude steel 5.8 million tonnes (-4.4%)

Corporate Highlights

- Entered into the new long-term agreements with NLMK, MMK and other Russian and oversees customers to supply iron ore and pellets for 3-5 years
- Increased sales of iron ore and pellets to the Chinese market by 149% to 10.2 million tonnes in 2011 from 4.1 million tonnes in 2010
- Secured a 5-year PXF loan for the amount of US$ 3.1 billion
- Issued 5-year US$ 750 million Eurobonds with a coupon rate of 6.50%
- Obtained ratings of ‘Ba3’/’Positive’ by Moody’s and ‘BB-‘/’Stable’ by Fitch respectively
- Purchased a 4% stake in Norilsk Nickel for a total consideration of US$ 2.2 billion
- Appointed three independent non-executive directors to the Board of Directors
- Introduced disclosure of operational results on a quarterly basis and IFRS financial results on a half year basis

Eduard Potapov, Chief Executive Officer of METALLOINVEST, commented:

“We are pleased to announce that the Company has demonstrated impressive growth of its key operational and financial metrics and significantly strengthened its position in the global market during the course of 2011. The management delivered on a number of initiatives that supported a significant increase in the Company's production volumes and allowed to achieve impressive financial results. The strong performance enabled the Company to successfully tap international capital markets. Our ability to raise the largest syndicated loan in Russia's metals and mining industry and successfully issue a debut Eurobond underlines a high level of investor confidence in Metalloinvest.

Throughout 2011, Metalloinvest has undertaken a number of targeted measures to create a basis for the Company's sustainable development, including the improvement of corporate governance, introducing the principles of corporate social responsibility and best practice information disclosure. We intend to continue implementing our strategy aimed at increasing the Company's efficiency levels and improving transparency”.