Aperam announces a prudent deferral of the start of its share buy back program in the context of COVID-19

Luxembourg, 1 April 2020 (07:00 CET) - Aperam announces a prudent deferral of the start of its share buy back program in the context of COVID-19.

In the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, we have as top priority the health and safety of all the people who work for and with Aperam. Hence we have implemented all necessary actions to protect our personnel and all the communities around our sites from the spread of this pandemic, in line with guidance issued by the World Health Organization and national governments. Whenever possible we continue to use home working and visual training for all our people. We remain in close contact with our local stakeholders and support hospitals with donations of masks.

In these exceptional conditions, everything is also done to preserve the integrity of our plants and our business, and to support our services to customers. A large program to variabilize costs and reduce spends has been launched, and will be realized thanks to the efforts of all our employees. In line with above, the Board of Directors has decided to prudently defer the start of the share buy back program by 6 months to assess the severity and duration of the economic contraction, while keeping the announced dividends. 

About Aperam

Aperam is a global player in stainless, electrical and specialty steel, with customers in over 40 countries. The business is organised in three primary operating segments: Stainless & Electrical Steel, Services & Solutions and Alloys & Specialties.

Aperam has a flat Stainless and Electrical steel capacity of 2.5 million tonnes in Brazil and Europe and is a leader in high value specialty products. In addition to its industrial network, spread over six production facilities in Brazil, Belgium and France, Aperam has a highly integrated distribution, processing and services network and a unique capability to produce stainless and special steels from low cost biomass (charcoal made from its own FSC-certified forestry).

In 2019, Aperam had sales of EUR 4,240 million and steel shipments of 1.79 million tonnes.

For further information, please refer to our website at www.aperam.com

Contact

Corporate Communications / Laurent Beauloye: +352 27 36 27 103

Investor Relations / Thorsten Zimmermann: +352 27 36 27 304