CellMark Makes Binding Offer to Acquire Alcan International Network

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, October 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

CellMark, the forest products marketing group based in Gothenburg, Sweden, announced today that it has made a binding offer to acquire the Alcan International Network ("AIN") business from Constellium. Constellium is owned by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, Rio Tinto and Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement, the French sovereign investment fund.

AIN's worldwide operations specialize mainly in the trading and distribution of products in Chemicals & Minerals and Raw Material & Equipment for the aluminium, steel and foundry industries and semi-fabricated products. AIN recorded approximately $500m of revenues in 2010.

The acquisition of AIN will complement CellMark's existing operations, which consist of four specialised product divisions, each focusing on a basic product category - pulp & recycling and paper & packaging. This acquisition is in line with CellMark's strategy of widening the scope of its activities, as demonstrated by its growing involvement in solid biofuels (woodchips and pellets), interests in starch and other additives, as well as sales of-pre-owned paper mill equipment and machinery.

Constellium will respond to CellMark's binding offer following the completion of information and consultation requirements with the relevant employee representation bodies.  Completion of the acquisition, which is expected to occur in December 2011 or early 2012, is subject to various conditions, including regulatory filings in a number of jurisdictions.

Sir Adrian Montague, Chairman of CellMark Investment AB, said:

"The acquisition of AIN would mark an important step in CellMark's development.  The technical expertise and strong market connections of AIN would complement our existing operations, and CellMark's access to capital, its cultural values and risk management expertise would offers our new AIN colleagues exciting opportunities to grow and develop AIN's business alongside CellMark's core activities in forest products.  The combination of these two businesses would provide a platform to strengthen and develop our supply chain services for both commodities and specialties."

Thomas Hedberg, Deputy Chairman of CellMark Investment AB, commented:

"CellMark has already secured US$70 million in additional credit lines with a view to further enhancing AIN's trading capabilities."

Notes to Editors

About CellMark

CellMark is one of the world's foremost providers of supply chain services to the pulp and paper industry. Our specialists in sales, marketing, logistics and financial services feature market-leading know-how, and they embrace their challenging role as innovators and developers of truly creative solutions.

CellMark comprises four product divisions: Pulp, Paper, Packaging and Recycling as well as the subdivisions Energy and Machinery. Our global network of 47 offices in 20 countries, complemented by numerous agents in other markets, represent and support the product divisions. Today, CellMark's annual sales volume is almost 5 million tons.-Our sourcing activities extend to more than 60 countries, with sales in about 120 markets. Further, the Group has approximately 520 employees. For fiscal year 2010, CellMark recorded sales of USD 2.585 billion.

For more information, see http://www.cellmark.com

About Constellium

Constellium is a global sector leader that develops innovative, value added aluminium products for a broad range of markets and applications, including aerospace, mass transportation, automotive, packaging, energy and building and construction.

With 9,500 employees located in 26 countries and a commercial presence in more than 60 markets, Constellium is currently structured in 4 divisions: Global ATI, Specialty Sheet, Extrusions & Automotive Structures and its international trading network AIN. Constellium, with headquarters in Paris, is owned by affiliates of Apollo Global Management (51%), Rio Tinto (39%) and the Fonds Stratégique d'Investissement (10%). Constellium generated approximately US$ 4.4 billion of revenue in 2010.    

For more information, see http://www.constellium.com

About AIN

AIN operates two product teams, Chemicals and Minerals and Raw Material and Equipment.

Raw Material and Equipment is the leading network in sourcing and selling raw materials and equipment for Aluminium and Ferrous industries worldwide. The broad range of products enables AIN to act as a One Stop Shop for our long term partners. Well positioned in the sourcing AIN offer Metals, additives and aluminium products from qualified and international suppliers, for instance Al rod, Al scrap, Al ingots, extrusion billets and many others

World well-known manufacturers entrust the representation of their industrial equipment.

The Chemicals & Minerals product team is considered a full-service supplier of specialty chemical and industrial minerals used in a wide variety of applications including but not limited to Pharmaceutical, Personal Care, Cosmetic, Nutritional and Industrial markets such as Coatings, Glass and Catalysts.

AIN operates through 9 offices in Europe, 1 in USA and 8 offices in Asia and has 150 employees and about USD 500M in turnover 2010.

For more information on AIN, see http://www.alcan-network.com