World Championship 2016 – Sponsorship agreement with PhosAgro

PhosAgro Announces Sponsorship of
the 2016 FIDE World Chess Championship

MOSCOW, August 30, 2016 – PRNewswire

On the eve of the World Chess Championship match scheduled for 11-30 November in New York City, PhosAgro (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces that it has signed a strategic partnership with World Chess by Agon Limited, which holds global commercial rights for the organisation of championship matches of the World Chess Federaton (FIDE). The World Chess Championship Match will take place between Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Sergey Karjakin (Russia) in New York City.

The contract was signed by PhosAgro CEO and Russian Chess Federation Board of Trustees Member Andrey Guryev and Ilya Merenzon, CEO of Agon Group. Andrey Guryev said: "Sponsorship of this chess tournament is part of PhosAgro's long-standing corporate responsibility programme, which supports education, science, medicine, sports and healthy lifestyles. The Company has a long history of cooperating with chess federations, including as the sponsor of the 2014 World Chess Championship match in Sochi. I personally am a big fan of chess and for me it is a great honour to be able to lead a company that has a tradition of supporting the sport. Chess is a great way to improve problem solving and strategic thinking skills, which are key for a fast-developing company like PhosAgro to remain competitive in a global market by always thinking several moves ahead. I look forward to a great contest between two of the youngest opponents in the history of chess."

Chess, and the World Chess Championship match in particular, are the ideal marketing platform to increase awareness of the PhosAgro brand globally. Hundreds of millions of the most educated, and therefore most successful, people in the world will follow the match. This audience, which is important to PhosAgro as a global company with a presence in 100 countries, whose securities trade on the Moscow and London Stock Exchanges, and that has the ambitious goal of expanding its base of investors, partners and clients.

Ilya Merenzon said: "I am delighted that PhosAgro has become a strategic partner to chess as we continue to increase the popularity of the sport around the world. Chess is the ultimate battle of minds; a pure strategic contest for the smartphone generation and is associated with attributes such as intelligence, sophistication and discipline.

"World Chess is open for business and offers an unrivalled opportunity for brand partners to be associated with this global sport that is played and admired by countless people around the world."

PhosAgro is a Russian vertically integrated company and one of the world’s leading producers of phosphate-based fertilisers. PhosAgro’s primary assets include Apatit, PhosAgro-Cherepovets (established as a result of the merger of Ammophos and Cherepovetsky Azot), Balakovo branch of OJSC Apatit, Metachem, PhosAgro-Trans, PhosAgro-Region and NIUIF. The Company is the world’s largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock and the world’s second largest producer (excluding China) of MAP and DAP (according to Fertecon), Russia’s only producer of feed monocalcium phosphate (MCP), and also the sole producer of nepheline concentrate in Russia.

Links: ProAgro home page – Green Chemistry for Life

Promotional video of Phosagro

The Match will be held in the Fulton Market Building, a five minute walk from Wall Street, and will also feature dedicated spectator and VIP lounges with panoramic views of the Brooklyn Bridge as well as retail space, a restaurant, TV studios and much more. Full details available in our announcement report.

World Championship 2016 Schedule