Moody’s improves outlook on ratings of TMK to positive

MOSCOW, Jan 22 (PRIME) -- International rating agency Moody’s has affirmed the corporate family rating of Russian oil and gas pipe producer TMK at B1 and the company’s default rating probability at B1-PD, and improved the outlook to Positive from Stable, the agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Our decision to change the outlook on TMK’s ratings to Positive mainly reflects the fact that the company has closed the sale of 100% of shares in its U.S.-based subsidiary IPSCO Tubulars Inc. to Tenaris in January 2020 as well as our expectation that TMK will use nearly all of cash proceeds from this deal of around U.S.$1.1 billion for debt repayment, which will lead to substantial deleveraging,” the agency said quoting Vice President-Senior Credit Officer Denis Perevezentsev.

TMK closed the deal on January 3. The company and Tenaris signed a general agreement for six years following the deal, under which Tenaris acts as an exclusive distributor of oil country tubular goods and line pipes of TMK in the U.S. and Canada.

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