Announcement

The  Athens Single-Membered Court of First Instance rejected the appeal  filed  by ALUMINIUM  as well as its  application for the suspension of  the  Payment Order    issued by PPC SA  regarding  the unlawful state aid,  amounting  to  17.4 million Euros (plus interests), based on a relevant decision of the European Commission. Despite the existence of an express Decision of the European Commission, ALUMINIUM SA had until now refused to pay the relevant amount, compelling PPC to proceed to the necessary legal actions.

In view of the non- recovery of the abovementioned amount of unlawful aid until today, the European Commission has initiated proceedings against theHellenicRepublicbefore theEuropean Court. It is reminded that the European Commission by its Decision in 2011, considered as unlawful State aid the reduced electricity tariffs compared to the other High Voltage customers applied for the supply of energy by PPC to ALUMINIUM for the period  from 1.1.2007 to 6.3.2008 and requested the recovery of the relative SUMS amounting to 17.4 million Euros (plus interests) for the said period. Said reduced electricity tariffs  had been imposed on PPC by  a court Decision , following relevant request of ALUMINIUM, which held that  ALUMINIUM should be priced by the reduced  tariff  of the  special status of the PECHINEY 1960 contract with PPC , despite the fact that the said contract had been terminated in 2006.

It is also noted that the special pricing based on the PECHINEY contract for the said time period,  that was  considered to constitute unlawful  state aid, amounted to a total average charge  of  44.23€/ MWh.

Athens, February 18, 2014