LUXEMBOURG — (Marketwire) — 02/05/13 — Ternium S.A. (NYSE: TX) announced today that it was made aware by Tenaris S.A. (Tenaris) of the filing of a lawsuit in Brazil by Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) and various entities affiliated with CSN against Ternium Investments S.àr.l., its subsidiary Siderar, and Confab Industrial S.A. (Confab), a Brazilian subsidiary of Tenaris. The entities named in the CSN lawsuit had acquired a participation in Usinas Siderúrgicas de Minas Gerais S.A. – USIMINAS (Usiminas) in January 2012.
As informed by Tenaris, the CSN lawsuit alleges that, under applicable Brazilian laws and rules, the acquirers were required to launch a tag-along tender offer to all minority holders of Usiminas ordinary shares for a price per share equal to 80% of the price per share paid in such acquisition, or 28.8 Brazilian reais (BRL), and seeks an order to compel the acquirers to launch an offer at that price plus interest. If so ordered, the offer would need to be made to 182,609,851 ordinary shares of Usiminas not belonging to Usiminas– control group; Ternium Investments and Siderar–s respective shares in the offer would be 60.6% and 21.5%. None of the Ternium subsidiaries named in the CSN lawsuit has yet been properly notified of the claims.
Ternium believes that CSN–s allegations are groundless and without merit, as confirmed by several opinions of Brazilian counsel and previous decisions by Brazil–s securities regulator Comissão de Valores Mobiliários, including a February 2012 decision determining that the above mentioned acquisition did not trigger any tender offer requirement. Accordingly, Ternium will defend itself vigorously.
Ternium is a leading steel company in Latin America, manufacturing and processing a wide range of flat and long steel products for customers active in the construction, home appliances, capital goods, container, food, energy and automotive industries. With its principal operations in México and Argentina, Ternium serves markets in the Americas through its integrated manufacturing system and extensive distribution network. The Company has an annual production capacity of approximately 10.8 million tons of finished steel products. More information about Ternium is available at .