Tube City IMS Looks to Go Public

Company hopes to raise $172 million through public offering.

Hoping to capitalize on a restructuring North American steel industry, scrap metal supplier Tube City IMS Corp. seeks to raise up to $172.5 million in an initial public stock offering.

Tube City IMS, an 80-year-old scrap recovery and processing firm based in Glassport, Pa., said money raised would be used to pay undisclosed debt, and for general corporate purposes, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Credit Suisse, UBS Investment Bank and Jefferies & Co. will underwrite the offering. Tube City IMS plans to list its stock on the Nasdaq market under the symbol "TCMS."

Tube City did not disclose the price range it expects to receive for its stock, and did not divulge a timetable. Officials declined to comment Monday, citing SEC rules.

Total revenue for the company's Tube City Division in 2005 was $866.9 million; revenue for its IMS Division was $256.6 million, according to the filing.

Tube City IMS has operations at 67 mill sites in the United States, Canada and Europe. The company operates a scrap metal processing center in West Mifflin. Some of its biggest customers include U.S. Steel, AK Steel and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.

The company employs 2,250 people, including 1,815 hourly workers represented by several unions, including the United Steelworkers, Teamsters and International Union of Operating Engineers.

Tube City was acquired two years ago by Mill Services Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Wellspring Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm. The deal created a mill service company that can broker and process up to 22 million tons of scrap steel annually.

Tube City was founded in 1926 in McKeesport by the Coslov family as Tube City Iron & Metal Co. Pittsburgh Tribune Review