Zhongwang USA Acquisition of Aleris Will Not Proceed

CLEVELAND, Nov. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Aleris Corporation announced today that the company's planned acquisition by Zhongwang USA LLC will not proceed. The merger agreement between the parties expired by its terms on November 12, 2017.

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The merger was subject to customary regulatory approvals, including approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). In July 2017, CFIUS raised concerns about the transaction, and the parties withdrew their filing while extending the merger agreement to allow for additional discussions.

"While this is not the outcome we intended, we remain committed to our growth strategy and have made great strides over the past year in expanding our capacity and developing the capabilities required to meet the future demands of our industry. This includes our automotive expansion project in Lewisport, KY, which is beginning to serve customers," Sean Stack, Aleris Chairman and CEO said. "I am proud of our employees' focus and accomplishments over the past several months and appreciate the support we've received from customers. Aleris remains well-positioned for future growth, and we will continue to focus on serving our customers with excellence as we move forward."

Since 2010, Aleris has been owned and controlled by a group led by certain investment funds of Oaktree Capital Management, L.P., as well as certain funds managed by Apollo Management, L.P.

"Our ownership group remains committed to Aleris and highly supportive of the company's strategy," Stack said.

About Aleris

Aleris is a privately-held, global leader in aluminum rolled products serving diverse industries including aerospace, automotive, building and construction, commercial transportation and industrial manufacturing. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Aleris operates production facilities in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.aleris.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements included herein may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Statements under headings with "Outlook" in the title and statements about our beliefs and expectations and statements containing the words "may," "could," "would," "should," "will," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "estimate," "target," "project," "look forward to," "intend" and similar expressions intended to connote future events and circumstances constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements about, among other things, future costs and prices of commodities, production volumes, industry trends, anticipated cost savings, anticipated benefits from new products, facilities, acquisitions or divestitures, projected results of operations, achievement of production efficiencies, capacity expansions, future prices and demand for our products and estimated cash flows and sufficiency of cash flows to fund capital expenditures. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in or implied by any forward-looking statement. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) our ability to successfully implement our business strategy; (2) the success of past and future acquisitions or divestitures; (3) the cyclical nature of the aluminum industry, material adverse changes in the aluminum industry or our end-uses, such as global and regional supply and demand conditions for aluminum and aluminum products, and changes in our customers' industries; (4) increases in the cost, or limited availability, of raw materials and energy; (5) our ability to enter into effective metal, energy and other commodity derivatives or arrangements with customers to manage effectively our exposure to commodity price fluctuations and changes in the pricing of metals, especially London Metal Exchange-based aluminum prices; (6) our ability to generate sufficient cash flows to fund our capital expenditure requirements and to meet our debt obligations; (7) competitor pricing activity, competition of aluminum with alternative materials and the general impact of competition in the industry end-uses we serve; (8) our ability to retain the services of certain members of our management; (9) the loss of order volumes from any of our largest customers; (10) our ability to retain customers, a substantial number of whom do not have long-term contractual arrangements with us; (11) our ability to fulfill our substantial capital investment requirements; (12) risks of investing in and conducting operations on a global basis, including political, social, economic, currency and regulatory factors; (13) variability in general economic conditions on a global or regional basis; (14) current environmental liabilities and the cost of compliance with and liabilities under health and safety laws; (15) labor relations (i.e., disruptions, strikes or work stoppages) and labor costs; (16) our internal controls over financial reporting and our disclosure controls and procedures may not prevent all possible errors that could occur; (17) our levels of indebtedness and debt service obligations, including changes in our credit ratings, material increases in our cost of borrowing or the failure of financial institutions to fulfill their commitments to us under committed facilities; (18) our ability to access credit or capital markets; (19) the possibility that we may incur additional indebtedness in the future; (20) limitations on operating our business as a result of covenant restrictions under our indebtedness, and our ability to pay amounts due under the Senior Notes; and (21) other factors discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the sections entitled "Risk Factors" contained therein. Investors, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether in response to new information, futures events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

Website Posting
We use our investor website (investor.aleris.com) as a channel of distribution of Company information. The information we post through this channel may be deemed material. Accordingly, investors should monitor this channel, in addition to following our press releases, Securities and Exchange Commission filings, and public conference calls and webcasts. The content of our website is not, however, a part of this release.

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SOURCE Aleris