VA Intertrading was founded in 1978 as a subsidiary of the former state-owned company VOEST-ALPINE in order to handle compensation transactions for the Group. VA Intertrading has been a free commodity trader since 1995, dealing mainly in steel as well as food and animal feed. The company is active in marketing and procurement, position trading and service (closeness to the market, financing and logistics). Over the last years voestalpine’s interest in VA Intertrading has been purely financial. For this reason, a sales process was initiated together with the management of VA Intertrading.
Yesterday, a sales contract was signed with the purchaser, Calexco S.a.r.l., Luxembourg, a company associated with Mr Kostyantin Zhevago, majority shareholder of Ferrexpo Plc, thereby successfully concluding the sales process. A purchase price in the low two-digit millions was agreed for the 38.5% interest. Pending approval from antitrust authorities, a 30 percent interest in VA Intertrading will be divested immediately, with the remaining eight percent to follow in the next three years. In accordance with the structure of this transaction, voestalpine AG will remain a minority stakeholder in VA Intertrading AG until 2016. The new co-owner brings numerous advantages and synergies to VA Intertrading and this should have a positive impact on the company’s development in the future. Following an agreement between the stakeholders, all other stakeholders of VA Intertrading have a pre-emption right. The question of whether the other stakeholders will exercise their pre-emption right is still open.