Alum Tulcea shareholders greenlight sale of Global Aluminium Ltd BVI's Sierra Leone bauxite mines

On July 10, according to a report submitted to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, Alum Tulcea's shareholders approved the sale of Global Aluminium Ltd BVI, the subsidiary through which the company held ownership of the bauxite mines in Sierra Leone.

However, Alum Tulcea is 99.4% owned by Romanian integrated aluminium company Alro. At the Annual General Meeting (AGM), Alum Tulcea, the sole shareholder, decided to divest by selling a certain number of shares, constituting the entire share capital of Global Aluminium Ltd BVI. The mandate was given to the Company's Board of Directors to negotiate and finalize the price and terms of the transaction.

Earlier, it was disclosed by the company that an unsolicited proposal had been received from a local investor in Sierra Leone. The offer pertained to acquiring the entire share capital of Sierra Mineral Holdings 1 Ltd ("SMHL"), a registered entity in the British Virgin Islands. Alum SA wholly owns SMHL through Global Aluminium Limited, also registered in the British Virgin Islands. SMHL operates the group's bauxite mines located in Sierra Leone.

Alum Tulcea, which Alro Slatina owns, is the sole alumina refinery in Romania, boasting 600,000 tons per annum production capacity. Most of the alumina produced in Tulcea is utilized by Alro to manufacture aluminium. Following an extensive modernization and re-engineering initiative in February 2007, Alum was successfully reinstated in 2009.