1 Jul 2010 15:37

Evraz steel mills part with VEB board members following loan repayments

MOSCOW. July 1 (Interfax) - The Evraz Group has voted Vnesheconombank (VEB) representatives off the boards of directors at its Nizhny Tagil Iron & Steel Works and West Siberian Iron & Steel Works (ZSMK) following loan repayments, the companies said following their AGMs.

Neither company will pay dividends for 2009, which ZSMK closed with net profit of 81.8 billion rubles to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS). NTMK posted profit of 7.133 billion rubles.

VEB opened $1.8 billion in credit facilities for Evraz at the end of 208 to refinance syndicated bank loans. Evraz paid off $800 million in December 2009 and the remainder at the end of May after it had raised a longer-term Gazprombank loan of $950 million, maturing in 2015.

Both NTMK and ZSMK augmented their boards to six members to accommodate a VEB representative while the loans were outstanding. The boards are now down to five again.