OREANDA-NEWS. August 1, 2012. Further to its announcements of 27 February and 17 April 2012, OJSC Uralkali (LSE: URKA, "Uralkali", "the Company") announces the completion of the merger of its direct wholly-owned subsidiaries CJSC IC Silvinit-Resurs ("IC Silvinit-Resurs") and CJSC JV Kama ("JV Kama") into the Company, which comes as a part of the process of reorganisation of the Company’s structure and facilitates cancellation of the treasury shares.

As a result of the merger IC Silvinit-Resurs and JV Kama ceased to exist as separate legal entities and 158,622,014 Uralkali ordinary shares, constituting approximately 5.126% of the Company’s share capital and including those purchased to-date pursuant to the Company’s buyback programme that was announced in October 2011, held by IC Silvinit-Resurs and JV Kama, were cancelled.

The report on the results of cancellation of 158,622,014 Uralkali ordinary shares was approved by the Company’s Board of Directors on 23 July 2012. The decrease in Uralkali’s share capital from 3,094,637,905 to 2,936,015,891 ordinary shares will be effective upon registration of the corresponding amendments to Uralkali’s charter, which is expected to occur in early August.

In the near future Uralkali is expecting to register the merger of OJSC "Kama Mining Company", which was previously held by IC Silvinit-Resurs, into Uralkali. As a result, the reorganisation of the Company will be fully completed.

Vladislav Baumgertner, Uralkali’s CEO, said:

"Uralkali continues its reorganisation which is aimed at optimisation and streamlining of legal and management structures of the Company in order to enhance efficiency and improve transparency for shareholders. The cancellation of the treasury shares of the Company represents an important step in our ongoing buyback programme and underscores our commitment to internationally accepted standards of corporate governance and our continuous focus on enhancing shareholder value".