OREANDA-NEWS. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Russia-based steel pipe producer OAO TMK (B+/Stable/--) are unchanged after TMK's core shareholder and board chairman Dmitriy Pumpyanskiy repaid a $780 million loan to the company.

In October 2006, Mr. Pumpyanskiy increased his effective shareholding in TMK to 100% from 67%, partly financed by the loan. Following the successful IPO of 23% of the company's stock in early November, Standard & Poor's considered it likely that the $1.07 billion proceeds would be largely used to repay the loan and other transaction-related debt at the parent company level.

This expectation was the key reason behind our rating affirmation of Nov. 7, 2006. Refinancing through the IPO has largely removed previous concerns about the company's financial profile.