OREANDA-NEWS. April 13, 2007. Evraz Group is in talks to buy out IPSCO steel maker of Canada, Vedomosti, Interfax reported Thursday referring to some anonymous sources.
The progress in negotiations is yet unclear. One of the sources said Evraz managers negotiated with IPSCO counterparts a few weeks ago, while another claimed the talks are still underway. The third source said Evraz intended to fund the deal via the loan arranged by Swiss UBS, as it had done for taking over Oregon Steel. Official spokesmen of Evraz and IPSCO declined to comment.

Those are not the first rumours linking Evraz to a company in Canada. In February, for instance, Evraz was said to be the frontrunner for Canadian Algoma (2.4 million tons of steel). It turned out, however, that Algoma was negotiating not with Evraz but with German Salzgitter. Those talks proved futile and, in March, Algoma promised to consider offers of other bidders, which names haven’t been disclosed yet.

Evraz Group S.A. is a very big group of vertically-integrated mining and metal companies with enterprises operating mostly in Russia. Its members are Nizhni Tagil, West Siberian and Novokuznetsk Metallurgical Plants as well as Italian Palini e Bertoli, Czechia’s Vitkovice Steel and U.S. Oregon Steel Metal Works.

The mining business of Evraz is represented by Evrazruda, Kachkanarsky and Vysokogorsky Mining and Processing Plants, Neryungriugol Coal Company. Moreover, it invests in Raspadskaya coal mine and Yuzhkuzbassugol and owns Nakhodka Commercial Seaport in the Far East. Evraz is one of the leaders on world vanadium market (Highveld Steel and Vanadium Corp in South Africa and Stratcor in the United States).

Lanebrook owns roughly 83 percent in Evraz Group; its equal beneficiaries are Millhouse (asset management company for Roman Abramovich and his partners), Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov.