The Management Team of Usiminas
May. 26, 2016
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation
The Management Team of Usiminas
In a severe business environment arising from the downturn of the Brazilian economy, Usinas Siderúrgicas de Minas Gerais S.A. – Usiminas (“Usiminas”), an equity method affiliated company in Brazil of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (“NSSMC”), has been actively taking measures to improve its profitability under the management team led by Mr. Romel Erwin de Souza who has been serving as the CEO since September 2014, by implementing the reorganization plan including the suspension of the upstream operations of the Cubatão Steelworks.
Also, under the leadership of Mr. Romel Erwin de Souza, Usiminas has been striving to improve its financial strength by taking various measures including reinforcement of its capital through the capital increase in the amount of 1 billion reais and debt restructuring with major banks.
In the meantime, Usiminas held the Board of Directors meeting on May 25, 2016 (local time), and approved the appointment of the members of the Board of Officers (the “BoO”) including the new CEO, Mr. Sergio Leite de Andrade.
As mentioned above, however, Usiminas is now at a very critical moment for consummation of the capital increase and debt restructuring negotiations with major banks. NSSMC believes that significant changes to the management team under such critical situation could jeopardize Usiminas’s efforts for its turnaround and would be against the best interest of Usiminas and its stakeholders.
Further, the resolution for the appointment of the members of the BoO including the CEO was made without prior consent of NSSMC. NSSMC believes that this is clearly in violation of the Shareholders’ Agreement of Usiminas which requires the prior consensus between NSSMC and Ternium group for the appointment of the CEO and other members of the BoO.
NSSMC thus believes that the resolution made at the Board of Directors meeting above is invalid, and it will take all necessary legal measures to seek among others to annul the resolution.
For inquiries, please contact:
Public Relations Center, General Administration Div.
Tel: +81-3-6867-3419, -2135, -2146, -2977
