FINNISH COMPANY TO INVEST AND LIST IN SA

Finnish company, the Ruukki Group, will invest an initial R2 billion in South Africa and plans to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), the company said in a statement on 25 May.

The Finnish company has acquired Mogale Alloys in Krugersdorp and said it was looking for further investments in South African minerals and metals operations. Of the R2 billion, R1.85 billion will be paid to the vendors and R150 million into a trust for Mogale management, the company said. The Finnish company already has metal industry operations through investments in Turkey and ferrochrome smelting operations in Germany.

Ruukki Group was listed on the NasdaqOMX Helsinki stock exchange and its board had decided to seek a secondary listing on the JSE because of its planned South African interests. The company’s JSE listing is expected to be finalised in 2010. The company’s CEO, Alwyn Smit, is South African. Smit said Ruukki was looking “to expand its interests, particularly in minerals and alloys, with a focus on chrome and platinum processing.”

Ruukki will hold 84.9% of Mogale, with the balance being held by Black Economic partners. The transaction has already been approved by the South African competition authorities, the company said.

Mogale has four smelting furnaces and produces silico manganese, ferrochrome and stainless steel alloy, with a combined annual capacity of 100 000 metric tons. Smit said the company believed now was the proper time to invest in South Africa. “Our board of directors is looking to expand our operations and South Africa has such a dominant position in chrome and platinum reserves that it is the obvious country to look at”, Smit said.

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