OREANDA-NEWS. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Russian steelmaker OJSC Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK; BB+/Stable/--; Russia national scale 'ruAA+') are unchanged by the announcement of NLMK's acquisition of a 50% share in a joint venture with Duferco Group (not rated) for $850 million.

This cash outflow will not deteriorate NLMK's strong financial metrics, which have sufficient flexibility for M&A and investments.

In the longer term, the business profile could benefit from NLMK's sale to the joint venture of excess output of semifinished products for processing into higher-value-added products.