November 25, 2020 - Evraz plans to consolidate coal mining business on the basis of its Raspadskaya coal company. Raspadskaya will become the owner of 100% of Yuzhkuzbassugol, which also belongs to Evraz. The price of the deal will amount to 67.7 billion RUR (894 mio USD).

The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of December and is subject to corporate approvals by Raspadskaya shareholders. The merger will create the largest Russian coking coal producer and one of the largest coking coal companies in the world with the annual revenue of 2 billion USD.

After the assets consolidation, Raspadskaya will include seven mines, two open-pit mines and three processing plants in the Kemerovo region as well as one mine in Tuva republic (Russia).

Combing of Evraz coal assets may decrease production costs to 83 USD/t. However, the deal is more about optimization of the company’s current business model rather than a stimulus for growth in production.

In January-September 2020 Yuzhkuzbassugol produced 8.39 mio t (+2.78 mio t or +49.6% to January-September 2019) whereas Raspadskaya coal company extracted 6.49 mio t (-3.62 mio t or -35.8% to January-September 2019).

Evraz is one of the leading suppliers of coking coal to the largest Russian metallurgical producers: MMK (Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works), NLMK (Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works) and enterprises of EvrazGroup.

In January-October 2020 Evraz extracted 16.57 mio t of coal (-5.86 mio t or -26.2% compared to January-October 2019). The main beneficiaries of Evraz are Roman Abramovich (31.03% of shares), Chairman of the board of directors Alexander Abramov (21.61% of shares) and CEO of Evraz Alexander Frolov (10.79% of shares).