News update - SIMEC Group / Liberty House

Gupta family recruits Jay Hambro to its Strategic Board

The Gupta family, which controls commodities, energy and industrial interests worldwide has today (20^th January) appointed Jay Hambro as a senior member of its Group management team.

Mr Hambro, 41, who has been executive chairman of Sino-Russian Hong Kong exchange-listed industrial commodities champion IRC since 2010, is a well-known figure in the international mining and commodities industry. He joins the Guptas’ Group Strategic Board as Group Chief Investment Officer and Chief Executive Officer of SIMEC Energy & Mining Divisions, spearheading the ambitious global development plans of the business.

The Gupta family, which owns two international commodity and industrial groups, SIMEC and Liberty House, has been undertaking major investments in recent months including the purchase of Uskmouth Power Station and reactivation of the Liberty Steel rolling mill, both in South Wales, and the acquisition of most of the former Caparo steel and engineering businesses in the UK West Midlands.

Mr Hambro’s primary role will focus on the aggressive worldwide development of SIMEC, (Shipping, Industrials, Mining, Energy & Commodities), which currently includes a power generating arm and a global portfolio of trading operations focused on the resources sector.

One of his immediate roles will be to lead the completion of the purchase of the Tungsten Bank which Gupta family interests recently entered into an agreement to acquire, as part of its broader strategy to invest in finance for the commodities industry. This is subject to the approval of the Prudential Regulation Authority.

After graduating in business management, Mr Hambro began his career in resource finance with NM Rothschild & Sons, before moving to the investment bank of HSBC, advising multinational mining groups. He then joined what is now the Petropavlovsk plc group in a business development role and later as Chief Investment Officer before spearheading the development of their industrial commodity divisions as Aricom plc (FTSE listed) and more recently at IRC Limited.

Under his leadership the IRC business has become the first vertically integrated industrial commodity producer in Russia; has constructed and commissioned c.30mtpa of iron ore mining and processing operations with a near-term plan of bringing on stream one of the lowest cost new iron ore mines in the world; and has raised well over US$1bn in development finance for these projects.

P K Gupta, Chairman of the SIMEC Group, explained: “Appointing Jay Hambro is a key hire as a part of our evolution and growth plans. Jay has a proven successful track record in buying, building, operating and financing commodity businesses. He is well respected in the sector and I am delighted that he is joining our team.”

Jay Hambro said: “I am very pleased and honoured to be joining this highly successful team. What the group has achieved in creating a dynamic and entrepreneurial business unit focused on commodities is to be commended. I began working closely with the team some months ago on another project and so I am well aware of both their capabilities and their aggressive expansion plans.”

Further information from Jessica Beeken, +44 (0) 7429 176511 JessicaBeeken@workingword.co.uk .Eoghan Mortell + 44 (0) 07977 555 116 eoghan.mortell@workingword.co.uk

Note to Editors

The SIMEC Group is a multi-faceted commodity business spanning five continents, with operations that extend to an industrial base covering shipping, Industrial, Mining, Energy and Commodities.

Liberty House Group (“Liberty”) is an international steel and non-ferrous metals group, operating from its four hubs in the UK, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong, with a global network of offices spread across 30 countries. The Group’s global steel production capacity exceeds 4 million tonnes per annum. Current Group turnover is approximately $6 billion.