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Espoo, Finland, Apr 28, 2008 - (ABN Newswire) - STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE April 28, 2008 at 12.00 pm Outokumpu has today signed a sale and purchase agreement with Cupori Group Oy whereby Outokumpu will sell its remaining copper tube assets to Cupori Group Oy, a company owned by the current top management of Outokumpu's Copper Tube and Brass division. The total consideration of the sale is some EUR 50 million. Outokumpu will book a capital loss of some EUR 65 million on the transaction. Subject to usual conditions, the transaction is scheduled to be closed mid May 2008. The assets sold comprise the copper plumbing installation and industrial tube manufacturing companies in Pori in Finland, Zaratamo in Spain, Västerås in Sweden and Liège in Belgium, as well as the copper tube sales companies in France, Germany and Italy. In 2007, the businesses in question generated sales of some EUR 510 million with a net loss of some EUR 5 million. The number of personnel in the sold companies is some 730. The buyer has informed Outokumpu about their intention to divide the business into two independently operating companies under different ownership after the transaction is completed. As a result of this, Cupori Group Oy will own the sales company in Italy and production facilities in Finland and Sweden, and Leaf Business Holdings S.L. will own the sales companies in France and Germany, as well as the production facilities in Belgium and Spain. As the business in question has been reported as a discontinued operation in Outokumpu's accounts, the transaction does not have an effect on the Group's sales nor operating profit figures. The capital loss on the transaction will be reported in the line "net profit for the period from discontinued operations" in the Group's income statement. The transaction all but completes Outokumpu's exit from the copper fabrication business, started in 2005, when the majority of Outokumpu Copper was sold to Nordic Capital. Of that business, two brass-producing units still remain in Sweden and the Netherlands. It is Outokumpu's intention to exit from these businesses, as well. Following this transaction, and when the remaining brass assets are eventually sold, Outokumpu is a genuinely pure play stainless steel operator, with its vision to be the undisputed number one in stainless. In 2007, Outokumpu's stainless operations generated sales of EUR 6.9 billion and an operating profit of EUR 589 million. During the course of the past some 12 months Outokumpu has announced several major decisions in order to reach its vision. To increase the share of sales to end-user and project customers and to dampen the effects of the volatile raw material prices, especially of nickel, on the profitability of the company, Outokumpu has decided on a number of investments to broaden the company's product offering to more specialized stainless steel grades and products containing less or no nickel. Also the company's service center network is being considerably strengthened and widened. These initiatives will provide Outokumpu a more stable and profitable business model going forward. For further information, please contact: Karri Kaitue, Deputy CEO, tel. +358 9 421 5506 Lauri Rautala, SVP - Outokumpu Copper Tube & Brass, tel. +358 400 454 648 Eero Mustala, VP - Project Communications, tel. +358 40 504 5146 OUTOKUMPU OYJ Corporate Management
Ingela Ulfves Vice President - Investor Relations and Financial Communications tel. + 358 9 421 2438, mobile +358 40 515 1531, fax +358 9 421 2125 e-mail: ingela.ulfves@outokumpu.com www.outokumpu.com
