Americas Mining Company, a Grupo Mexico Affiliate, Files Reorganization Plan to Retain Equity Interest in ASARCO LLC

Thursday, August 28th 2008

Americas Mining Corporation, an affiliate of Grupo Mexico SAB de CV (GMEXICO) submitted last evening a reorganization plan to retain its equity interest in its wholly owned indirect subsidiary, ASARCO LLC, by offering full payment to ASARCO’s creditors in connection with ASARCO’s Chapter 11 case. The plan, which was submitted to the Bankruptcy Court in connection with the full payment plan offered to ASARCO’s independent Board of Directors at a Bankruptcy Court hearing in June, details the terms of its full payment plan offering creditors a 100% recovery on their allowed claims.

Under the proposal, AMC would provide up to $2.7 billion in cash as well as a $440 million guarantee to assure payment of all allowed creditor claims, including payment of liabilities relating to asbestos and environmental claims. This contribution, together with the $1 billion in cash on hand at ASARCO and including the estimated value of ASARCO LLC, which would remain liable to creditors, provides a total consideration of approximately $6.74 billion, to be contrasted with approximately $2.6 billion being made available under ASARCO’s competing plan, which is being sponsored by Sterlite. AMC’s plan is premised on the estimation of the approximate allowed amount of the claims against ASARCO.

AMC believes that its plan provides superior value and most certainty to ASARCO’s creditors since it remains the only proposal offering creditors full value for their allowed claims.

AMC has been seeking to reclaim full equity ownership of its indirect wholly owned subsidiary ASARCO LLC since it filed for Chapter 11 protection in August 2005. Since that time, ASARCO has instead pursued a process to sell its assets over AMC’s objection and most recently filed a plan with the Bankruptcy Court pursuant to which ASARCO’s assets would be sold to a competing bidder, Sterlite. AMC asked the Bankruptcy Court to be allowed to file its own plan of reorganization and was granted permission to file such a competing reorganization plan. AMC believes ASARCO’s plan, sponsored by Sterlite, should be rejected on the basis that it offers creditors far less value and is unreasonable for a number of reasons, including the payment of asbestos claims and environmental claims for more than 100 percent of the allowed amount of those claims.