ArcelorMittal sells Kazakh assets for $286 million

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal has sold its Kazakh assets – the Temirtau steel mill and the Aktau pipe plant – for $286 million to a Kazakh state-owned fund, Kazakhstan’s industry ministry said on Friday.

The industry minister, Kanat Sharlapayev, also said the government has agreed with local car tycoon, Andrei Lavrentyev, that he would take over the steel mill.

Sharlapayev said the government’s involvement in the deal ensured a lower price for the assets. The Temirtau steel mill’s new owner, however, will also have to repay $700 million in debt to ArcelorMittal over the next four years.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered his government to end cooperation with ArcelorMittal after a series of deadly incidents at its facilities culminated in a mine fire that killed 46 people in October.

(By Tamara Vaal and Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Tom Hogue)