A Ocean Partners appoints new CFO and strengthens structured finance capability to enhance its ability to offer financial solutions to its miner and smelter clients base.

Maidenhead UK, 24^th October 2005 –Ocean Partners Holdings Limited today announced that it is strengthening its financial capabilities to further support Ocean Partners’ successful trading services to miners and smelters of copper, lead and zinc raw materials.

The company announced that Siva Pillay will become Chief Financial Officer of Ocean Partners, enabling Paul Smith, one of the founding partners and current CFO, to devote more of his time to structured finance arrangements to further support the growth of Ocean Partners’ business.

Mr. Pillay, with 20 years of business, accounting and financial expertise was the financial advisor to the Ocean Partners team for their management buy out from Alcan.  Mr. Smith’s background is in the smelting, mining and trading business, coupled with strong financial experience.  Mr. Pillay and Mr. Smith have worked together to ensure that Ocean Partners was established on solid financial basis. At the time of the management buy-out from Alcan, Ocean Partners launched with over US$100 million of equity capital/subordinated debt/bank credit facilities/brokerage funding in place.  Mr. Smith has continued to act as Ocean Partners’ CFO, ensuring that the company emerged from its first year with a successful financial track record and further strengthened financial position.

With Mr. Pillay assuming the bulk of the responsibilities of Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Smith will increasingly focus on extending the structured finance capabilities and offerings that Ocean Partners makes available to support its trading partners.  The company is continuing to build on its relationship trading strengths while further strengthening its financial capacity to enhance clients’ production capability.

“As Ocean Partners’ moves into its second year of operations, we now believe that we have the financial resources to begin offering solutions to existing clients who are looking to finance new and/or brownfield projects” said Jeff Beck, Ocean Partners’ Managing Director.  “The addition of Siva to our financial team will allow Paul, with his assistance, to develop new business opportunities both to better serve our existing clients’ financial needs and also allow Ocean Partners’ to begin considering investments in emerging resource markets.”

Ocean Partners is a privately held company with offices in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Mongolia. Mineco AG, a minority shareholder in Ocean Partners, represents the company in the Former Soviet Union states as well as the Balkans. The company is additionally represented by agents in Lima, Santiago, Tokyo, Melbourne, New Delhi and Istanbul.  Ocean Partners provides relationship based trading services to miners and smelters of copper, lead and zinc raw materials.

For further information, please contact:

Jeffrey Beck                                        
Managing Director                               
Tel: +1 203 834 4424                                                             
E-mail: jeff.beck@oceanpartners.com              

Paul Smith
Finance Director
Tel: +44 1628 644 064
E-mail: paul.smith@oceanpartners.com

back to top