Russian group TMK to sell stake in Romanian subsidiary to reduce its debts

Bucharest, April 29 - Neftegaz.RU. Russian group TMK, one of the biggest producers of pipes for the oil and gas industry, plans to sell a significant stake in its Romanian subsidiary TMK-Artrom Slatina through a secondary public offering (SPO) on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, Romania Insider reported.

TMK will put up for sale 69 million shares in TMK Artrom Slatina, currently worth some EUR 60 million, considering the latest share price of RON 4.14 (as of Wednesday, April 24). The shares on sale represent 59% of the company’s total number of shares, of a total 92.7% stake currently held by TMK.

However, the group announced it would re-invest most of the money raised from this share sale (an expected net amount of EUR 62.3 million) in the company, through a capital increase already approved at the beginning of April, which would be completed on May 8. The shares on sale thus represent about 37% of the company’s total number of shares after the capital increase while TMK will continue to hold a majority stake of 58% in the company.

The operation is part of the group’s strategy to reduce the debts of TMK Artrom Slatina and consolidate its operations.

At the end of last year, TMK Artrom bought TMK’s stake in TMK Resita, a producer of steel for the pipe industry and the company’s main supplier. TMK Artrom Slatina and TMK Resita now form a group with total consolidated revenues of RON 1.39 bln (over EUR 300 million), in 2018, up 18% over the previous year, and a net profit of almost RON 80 million (EUR 17 million), triple compared to 2017. The group produced over 200,000 tons of seamless steel pipes in 2018.

TMK hired Raiffeisen Bank, Raiffeisen Centrobank and Wood&Company as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners for this offer. BT Capital partners is Retail Agent and Renaissance Securities is Co-Manager.