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Abonner Leman Commodities / Metinvest International

Leman Commodities / Metinvest International

Major international steel trader Leman Commodities changes its name to Metinvest International

Geneva (ots)

Incorporated in Geneva in 1997, Leman Commodities,
a major international trader of steel and other metals, unveiled its
new name to the press in Geneva this morning. Leman Commodities is a
member of the Metinvest Group, which itself belongs to System Capital
Management, a holding company which is one of the Ukrainian economy's
driving forces, with some 160,000 employees.
Why create a Swiss-based trading company? Andrey Parkhomchuk,
Chairman and CEO of Leman Commodities, pointed out that Ukraine
(Europe's largest country in terms of surface area) had important
mining and industrial resources, but his country does not offer the
same advantages in terms of international trade as Geneva, a global
trade centre. Hence the will of this Group to establish itself at the
heart of the market. With success.
Ten years later, Leman Commodities employs more than 200 people,
including 57 (of 18 different nationalities) at its Geneva head
office and around 150 in a network which already covers 14 countries.
At 30 September, Leman Commodities had already sold some 7.2 million
tons of metal, mainly steel, for the year to date, including 86% of
semi-finished products, in 75 countries. At the same date 2007
revenues were already at $2.5 billion (compared to $2.9 billion for
the whole of 2006), and the balance sheet exceeded $1.1 billion
(compared to $1.05 billion for the whole of 2006).
Leman Commodities handles 9% of the world market for tubes and
pipes, and respectively 8% for merchant slabs and merchant square
billets, and 5% for heavy plates. Its product range covers steel
sheet coils, rails and concrete reinforcing bars, as well as tubes
for oil and gas pipelines.
Leman Commodities also helps its clients in finding appropriate
financing for their purchases (this service represented over $800
million this year). The Group adopts a rigorous commercial approach,
and 95% of its sales are made through bankers' acceptances, thereby
reducing debtor risk significantly.
Leman Commodities has also continuously widened its range of
services, especially in logistics, shipping and cargo insurance, by
maximizing synergies between its activities and those of the Group's
other companies.
Unlike other traders, Leman Commodities' key advantage is that it
has access to the full range of the Ukraine-based Metinvest Group's
production, which guarantees a high level of stability for its
sourcing and its trading activities.
Metinvest is European n° 3 and world-wide n° 7 in plate
production, world-wide n° 6 in iron ore production and n° 18 in steel
production. The Group comprises 19 entities, including the Azovstal
foundry and steel works (30,000 people), but also a number of mines,
plants and shipping companies.
Metinvest's declared strategy is one of rapid growth and
development, having already acquired two plants in Italy, one in the
UK and one in Bulgaria. Its expansion also includes the recent
acquisition of the port of Sebastopol, a major infrastructure in the
Black Sea.
Having devoted billions of dollars to a thorough modernization of
its industrial resources (Metinvest is Ukraine's biggest investor),
the Group has re-organized its structures and carried out an in-depth
vertical integration of its activities. The role of each entity has
been strictly defined, within an overall strategy which includes a
common marketing approach.
So it is that Leman Commodities, with its successful track record
and its know-how, has been entrusted with the international
management of sales for all the Metinvest Group, except the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) members. As part of this
integration process, Leman Commodities is going to change its name to
Metinvest International.
In addition to its mining and metal processing activities via the
Metinvest Group, the System Capital Management holding company is
also active in banking, insurance, electricity production and
distribution, telecommunications, machines-tools, brewing, the hotel
industry and sport (as owner of the Shakhtar Donetsk soccer club).
System Capital Management employs a total of 160,000 people.

Contact:

Vicken B. Bayramian or Simeon Lachev
Leman Commodities
Tel.: +41/22/906'18'28
E-mail: v.bayramian@lemanglobal.com / s.lachev@lemanglobal.com