OREANDA-NEWS. February 15, 2008. OJSC Novolipetsk Steel (LSE: NLMK), the leading Russian steel producer, notes the information in mass media regarding the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) refusal to grant NLMK permission to acquire Maxi-Group and announces the following:

FAS rejection of NLMK’s request to acquire Maxi-Group was caused by technical mistakes and lack of information about agreeing the transaction on acquiring 50%+1 share of Maxi-Group in the filing. NLMK will correct aforesaid technical mistakes and will submit duplicative request to the FAS.

NLMK will not dispute possible administrative fines. The FAS refusal does not deal with the structure of the acquisition.