Russian pipemaker TMK has agreed to sell its 100% holding in North American unit IPSCO Tubulars to Tenaris for $1.209 billion, TMK says.

The signed stock purchase agreement between the companies provides for the sale on an aggregate, cash and debt free basis, and will include $270 million of working capital. It is subject to necessary permissions and approvals.

The sale is in line with TMK's strategy, which underlines monetisation of the company's international assets, and represents significant value for all shareholders, says TMK chairman Dmitry Pumpyanskiy.

TMK acquired IPSCO for $4 billion in June 2008 from SSAB, which bought the Chicago-based company a year earlier. This laid the foundation for TMK's North American division. It has ten production facilities in the United States and one in Canada, with its corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas.

TMK said earlier this week it was still working on the North American unit’s initial public offering, amid hearsay it was looking to divest its US assets. It pulled out of an IPO around a year ago, due to adverse market conditions (see Kallanish 9 February 2018).

TMK IPSCO increased its revenue by 36% on-year in 2018 to $1.4 billion, while operating profit rose 5% to $97.3m. Shipments were up by 19% to 804,000t.