Berlin, 30 December 2020: HMS Bergbau AG, one of the leading independent commodity trading and marketing companies in Germany, announces the sale of shares in Silesian Coal International Group of Companies S.A.

HMS Bergbau AG agreed today to sell 5 per cent of the shares in Silesian Coal International Group of Companies S.A. to an international investor. After the completion of the transaction HMS Bergbau AG will hold 55.18 per cent of Silesian Coal. The companies agreed not to disclose further details of the agreement.

The proceeds of cash and cash equivalents will be used by HMS Bergbau AG, among others, to finance the operating activities of Silesian Coal International Group of Companies S.A. The transaction will also contribute to an improvement in the balance sheet structure of HMS Bergbau AG.

Silesian Coal plans to develop identified potential coal deposit of 2.2 billion tonnes in situ — of which around 672 million tonnes of high-quality coal were identified as recoverable according to the JORC standard — at low cost using existing infrastructure. Once the mining licence has been granted, the aim is to produce around 1.5 million tonnes of coking coal annually.

Coking coal has been defined as a critical raw material by the European Union since 2014.