The team was introduced to a new investor who took on production and social obligations
ArcelorMittal Temirtau, which was sold to state private equity fund Qazaqstan Investment Corporation (QIC) last week, has been renamed Qarmet. This was reported by the press service of the administration of the Karaganda region of the country.
The head of the region, Ermaganbet Bulekpayev, introduced a new investor to the team: the Qazaqstan Steel Group (QSG) company and its founder Andrey Lavrentiev.
“The new owner faces important tasks, primarily to ensure and create working conditions, improve the well-being of workers, and will also have to actively participate and help develop the local community through social projects,” he noted.
Vadim Basin became the CEO of Qarmet . Basin served as executive director of ArcelorMittal Temirtau in 2017-2021, and at the end of October this year, after the death of miners at the mine named after. Kostenko, the President of Kazakhstan instructed him to head the enterprise.
“QSG, represented by Kazakh businessman Andrey Lavrentyev, has reached an agreement with the Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the acquisition of the assets of ArcelorMittal Temirtau. Under the terms of the agreement, QSG will purchase AMT’s assets for $286 million and will also make guaranteed deferred payments of $450 million, payable in four equal annual installments. In addition, an additional $250 million will be paid at the time of closing as payment of AMT’s outstanding intercompany indebtedness,” the company said in a statement.
In addition to the acquisition of assets, the Kazakh investor undertakes to invest another $3 billion in modernizing production and protecting the region’s environment, of which $1.3 billion will be invested next year.
The new investor calls his short-term goals, in particular, a radical improvement in production safety indicators and the environmental situation, modernization and reorganization of production, increasing the size, range and types of products.
On December 12 , President of Kazakhstan Kasim-Jomart Tokayev commented on the arrival of a new investor – a Kazakh company – at ArcelorMittal Temirtau (Qarmet), writes Zakon.kz.
“Now the government’s job is to help it, especially in the initial phase of operation, and then the demand from the new owner will be very tough,” he said.
Let us recall that last week the steel corporation ArcelorMittal sold its assets in Kazakhstan – QIC acquired all shares of the metallurgical enterprises ArcelorMittal Temirtau and ArcelorMittal Tubular Products Aktau. During the negotiations, ArcelorMittal requested $3.5 billion, which did not correspond to the calculations of international consultants. The State reduced the value of assets from this amount to $286 million.
