OREANDA-NEWS. November 19, 2007.Centroferve, a wholly owned subsidiary of Severstal, announces that its Revised Offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Celtic has been extended and will remain open for acceptance until 3.00 p.m. (Dublin time) on 7 December 2007.

The Revised Offer Document will be posted to Celtic Shareholders in the next day or so.

Centroferve announces that, as at 3.00 p.m. on 16 November 2007, being the first closing date of the Offer, acceptances of the Offer had been received in respect of 8,872,708 Celtic Shares (representing approximately 15.9% of the Celtic Shares to which the Offer relates). 

Centroferve did not hold any Celtic Shares before the commencement of the Offer Period and has not acquired or agreed to acquire any Celtic Shares during the Offer Period.

None of the acceptances referred to above have been received from persons acting in concert with Centroferve.  Prior to the Offer Period, Bluecone, a company owned by Severstal, acquired 12,281,946 Celtic Shares, and during the Offer Period (but before the Original Offer was made) Bluecone acquired a further 4,301,056 Celtic Shares.  As a result, Bluecone owns 16,583,002 Celtic Shares representing approximately 29.7% of the issued share capital of Celtic, and Bluecone has given an irrevocable undertaking to Centroferve to accept or procure acceptance of the Offer in respect of those shares.  Other than the Celtic Shares held or acquired by Bluecone, no party acting in concert with Centroferve held before the commencement of the Offer Period, or acquired or agreed to acquire during the Offer Period, any Celtic Shares.

Terms defined in the Original Offer Document dated 26 October 2007 and the announcement of the Revised Offer dated 9 November 2007 have the same meaning in this announcement unless otherwise stated.  References to the “Offer” include the Original Offer and the Revised Offer.