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Co-Steel Agrees to Sell Interest in Mayer Parry Recycling

1 March 2000

Co-Steel Announces Agreement to Sell Interest in Mayer Parry Recycling

    TORONTO--Feb. 29, 2000--(TSE:CEI.) (ME:CEI.) Co-Steel Inc. today announced that it has entered into a formal agreement to sell its interest in Mayer Parry Recycling to Manchester, UK-based, European Metal Recycling Limited. The cash transaction is valued at 50 million Pounds Sterling (Cdn$116.5 million), of which Co-Steel's share is 76%.
    The transaction, planned to be completed in 60 days, is subject to a number of conditions, including normal regulatory review and approval.
    "The divestiture of Mayer Parry Recycling is the next step in the restructuring plan that was rolled out in the third quarter of 1999," said Terry G. Newman, president and chief executive officer, Co-Steel Inc. "The proceeds from this transaction will be applied to reducing debt and restoring Co-Steel's financial flexibility."
    Co-Steel Inc. is one of the world's largest minimill steel producers with an annual capacity of 3.2 million tons of finished steel products. The Company manufactures and markets special quality steel bar and rod, reinforcing steel bar and rod, merchant bar, structural shapes and flat rolled steel products used principally in the construction, automotive, appliance, machinery and equipment industries.
    Co-Steel's minimill operations consist of Co-Steel Lasco, Whitby, Ontario; Co-Steel Sayreville, New Jersey; Co-Steel Raritan, New Jersey; and Gallatin Steel Company, Gallatin County, Kentucky, Co-Steel's 50%-owned flat rolled steel joint venture.
    Co-Steel processes and trades steel scrap for its own use and for sale to third parties through Co-Steel Recycling, a leading scrap processing and trading company with ferrous and non-ferrous recovery sites in Southern Ontario and upstate New York.