JSC Atomredmetzoloto - Disclosure of Interests in Uranium One
MOSCOW, March 4 /CNW/ - JSC Atomredmetzoloto ("ARMZ"), the Russian state-owned uranium mining company, announced today that it has acquired ownership over an aggregate of 18,963,600 outstanding common shares of Uranium One Inc. ("Uranium One"), which represent approximately 3.2% of the outstanding common shares of Uranium One.
ARMZ has acquired the common shares through its subsidiary Effective Energy NV, located at Leliegracht 10, 1015 DE, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. ARMZ currently has indirect ownership, control and direction over 135,963,600 Uranium One common shares. The 18,963,600 common shares of U1 were acquired on exercise of option agreements that were entered into with the expectation that the financing transaction between Uranium One and Japan Uranium Management Inc. ("JUMI"), as originally structured and disclosed by Uranium One, would have closed as originally anticipated. On January 14, 2010, Uranium One announced the closing of a convertible debenture financing with JUMI. If Kazakh regulatory approval to the issuance of the 117,000,000 common shares underlying the debentures issued to the JUMI consortium would have been received before exercise of the option agreements, the debentures would have automatically converted and Effective Energy's ownership of Uranium One's common shares would not have exceeded 19.95%.
Uranium One has agreed that ARMZ may temporarily exceed the 19.95% standstill under the Framework Agreement dated June 14, 2009 between ARMZ and Uranium One in order to settle the option agreements. If the convertible debentures issued to JUMI remain outstanding in 12 months time, ARMZ has agreed to reduce its holdings to the 19.95% level at that time. The standstill provisions in the Framework Agreement otherwise continue to apply to ARMZ.
Effective Energy and ARMZ are joint actors in connection with the transaction.
Advisors
UBS and Troika Dialog acted as counterparties on the option agreements.
About ARMZ
ARMZ is the world's fifth largest uranium producer with operating mines in Russia and Kazakhstan. During 2008, operations in which ARMZ is involved produced 9.6 million pounds of U(3)O8. ARMZ is part of Rosatom - the Russian State Corporation controlling the Russian Federation's nuclear activities. Together with its affiliates and subsidiaries, the company employs over 14,000 people.
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