Century Aluminum Co. (CENX) announced that its wholly owned subsidiary has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of the Sebree aluminum smelter from a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Alcan, Inc. Sebree, located in Henderson County, Kentucky, employs over 500 men and women and has an annual production capacity of 205,000 metric tons of primary aluminum.
As per the terms of the agreement, Century will acquire the smelter for $61 million in cash (after $4 million in purchase price deductions) and will receive $71 million in working capital, subject to customary adjustments. As part of the transaction, RTA will retain all historical environmental liabilities of the Sebree smelter and has agreed to fully fund the pension plan being assumed by Century's subsidiary at closing.
The transaction is subject to certain closing conditions, including the consent of Kenergy Corp. to the assignment of the smelter's existing power contract, which will terminate on January 31, 2014.
Separately, Century Aluminum of Kentucky, a wholly owned subsidiary of Century Aluminum, Kenergy Corp. and Big Rivers Electric Corp. announced that they have reached a tentative agreement on the framework for providing market priced power to the Hawesville smelter.
As per the arrangement, the electric cooperatives would purchase power on the open market and pass it through to Century at the market price plus additional costs incurred by them. The arrangement is intended to have no impact on the current rate proposal of Big Rivers or the related flow-through rate proposal of Kenergy, each currently pending before the Kentucky Public Service Commission.
The framework is subject to the negotiation of definitive agreements and approvals from various third parties, including the boards of directors of all parties, the KPSC, the Rural Utilities Service and others.
The company said that the parties intend to move as expeditiously as possible to finalize the agreement in advance of the expiration of the current power contract on August 20, 2013.
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