Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation (NYSE: NOR) ("Noranda") announced that it will ring The Opening BellSM at the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") on Friday, June 11, 2010, at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Noranda President and Chief Executive Officer, Layle K. "Kip" Smith, joined by members of Noranda's board of directors and management team, will ring The Opening BellSM in recognition of the Company's recently completed initial public offering and listing on the NYSE.
"The completion of our IPO was an extraordinary event in a difficult time," said Mr. Smith. "This accomplishment speaks not only to Noranda's track record of success, but to the market's confidence in the collective ability of our 2,300 employees to execute our strategy to create sustainable value."
A live webcast of The Opening BellSM (beginning at 9:29 a.m. EDT) will be available on the NYSE's homepage at www.nyse.com, as well as Noranda's homepage at www.norandaaluminum.com.
About the Company
Noranda, headquartered outside of Nashville, Tennessee, is a leading North American integrated producer of value-added primary aluminum products and high quality rolled aluminum coils.
- Noranda has two businesses: the upstream business and the downstream business.
- Noranda's upstream business is fully integrated, from bauxite to alumina to aluminum. Noranda's aluminum smelter near New Madrid, Missouri, has annual production capacity of approximately 580 million pounds (263,000 metric tonnes), which represented more than 15% of total 2009 U.S. primary aluminum production.
- Noranda's flat rolled products segment, or downstream business, is one of the largest aluminum foil producers in North America and consists of four rolling mill facilities with a combined maximum annual production capacity of 410 to 495 million pounds, depending on production mix.
Leading up to May 2010, Noranda achieved several key accomplishments which made the IPO possible, particularly given the tumultuous market conditions surrounding the Company during its offering:
- In August 2009, Noranda completed a transaction through which it became the sole owner of alumina and bauxite production operations in Gramercy, Louisiana, and St. Ann, Jamaica, respectively. Since 2004, Noranda had operated those businesses through a joint venture with Century Aluminum Company.
- In 2009, Noranda achieved financial success despite the effects of the global economic contraction. Noranda increased its share of demand in several key product groups, generated $220.4 million of operating cash flow, and repurchased or repaid $403.8 million of aggregate principal amount of debt. The Company also reduced its net cash production cost of primary aluminum to $0.77 per pound in 2009, compared to $0.81 in 2008.
- During the first quarter of 2010, Noranda continued to build on the accomplishments from 2009. Noranda generated $100.6 million of operating cash flow, used $215.9 million of cash to pay its revolver down to a zero balance, and achieved further reduction in its net cash production cost of primary aluminum.
- In first quarter 2010, Noranda completed the process of returning its New Madrid, Missouri aluminum smelter to producing at full capacity following a January 2009 ice storm that disrupted the power grid throughout Southeastern Missouri. The resulting power outage disabled two of New Madrid's three production lines, initially reducing the smelter's daily production to 25% of pre-outage levels. This event had a substantial negative impact on Noranda's 2009 operating results, resulting in an average operating rate of 54% of capacity for the year, significantly below the smelter's 99% operating rate for the previous 20 years. Although insurance proceeds covered substantially all of the costs of returning the smelter to capacity, the lower operating levels in 2009 created operating inefficiencies that adversely impacted net cash production cost of primary aluminum by $0.05 per pound.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements." In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's belief regarding future results, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. It is possible that actual results may differ, possibly materially, from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could affect future results, see the discussion in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contacts:
Noranda Aluminum Holding Corporation
Robert Mahoney, Chief
Financial Officer, 615-771-5752
robert.mahoney@noralinc.com