Earlier today OMZ (Uralmash-Izhora Group) redeemed US$30 million Credit-Linked Notes (CLNs) which it placed in November 2002.

In the past four months OMZ has taken a number of measures to optimize its debt portfolio - increase the maturity and reduce the size of its financial obligations. Since July this year the Company has increased the average duration of its bank debt from six months to one year and the long-term portion of debt currently stands at 40% of total debt. In the future, OMZ plans to increase the portion of longer-term public debt instruments in its portfolio.

“The Company is strictly following the debt optimization program announced by management in August this year. In the past several months we significantly changed the structure of our debt portfolio while further reducing its size. We intend to continue our efforts to optimize our debt portfolio and reduce the debt position to US$ 220 million by the end of the year.” aid Mr. Filatov, CFO of OMZ.

For further information please contact Marina Nacheva, Head of Investor Relations, on (++7095) 974 6021 or by e-mail at mnacheva@omz.ru.