April 16 (SeeNews) - German copper producer Norddeutsche Affinerie (NA) said on Wednesday it has completed a squeeze-out at Brussels-based metals group Cumerio, which owns a copper smelter in Bulgaria.
Cumerio owns the Cumerio Med copper smelter in Pirdop, western Bulgaria, and also has operations in Belgium, Italy and Switzerland. Norddeutsche Affinerie made a cash offer of 30 euro ($47.80) per share to Cumerio's shareholders in June 2007, valuing Cumerio at 777 million euro.
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"The work of the more than 30 integration teams of members of NA and Cumerio staff is meanwhile showing the first positive results. The works in Hamburg and in Pirdop, Bulgaria, have been able to achieve savings by joint procurement activities," NA said in a statement.
"We are very pleased with the progress in the integration process. We are already expecting to achieve significant synergy effects this year“, NA’s CEO, Bernd Drouven, siad in the same statement.
"The Cumerio takeover has created Europe’s largest copper group. The 12 production sites in seven European countries had some 4,700
employees at the end of 2007. The pro forma revenues of 2007 reached about 9.8 billion euro," the statement said.
Cumerio Med, 80 kilometres east of Bulgaria’s capital Sofia, transforms concentrates with 25%-35% copper content into anodes of 99% copper. Last year its annual smelting capacity was increased to 275,000 tonnes of anodes from 240,000 tonnes. Some of the anodes are transported by train to the Cumerio plant in Olen, Belgium, as feed for the electrolytic refinery.
Cumerio Med also produces copper cathodes for regional markets. The group is building another 180,000 tonne copper refinery in Pirdop that should begin production in the second quarter of 2008.
Cumerio reported a 4.2% year-on-year drop in anode copper output from its Bulgarian smelter to 229,000 tonnes in 2007 due to a maintenance shutdown. Cathode production totalled 70,000 tonnes in 2007, up from 67,000 tonnes the previous year.
($=0.6277 euro)