Novotrans to spend part of 5 bln rbl bond to buy railcars

MOSCOW, Nov 20 (PRIME) -- Russian railway rolling stock operator Novotrans plans to use some of the 5 billion rubles it plans to raise through a bond offer to buy part of its railcar stock out of leasing, President and co-owner of the company Konstantin Goncharov told reporters on Wednesday.

“The placement will be held in the third ten-day period of November like we’ve planned. The whole bond prospectus has been registered for 50 billion rubles. We plan the first issue to amount to 5 billion rubles depending on the situation. If demand overshoots that significantly, we will look into it and decide accordingly,” Goncharov said.

“We plan to buy a large part of the leasing portfolio. I will not specify the amount. Our railcars are very cheap.”

A spokesperson for the company told PRIME that Novotrans planned to buy over 25% of the leasing portfolio.

Goncharov also said that Novotrans was also studying creation of its own towing company after 2023 for a future 24.3 million tonne multipurpose transshipment terminal in the port of Ust-Luga.

When asked whether Novotrans may buy new assets, he said, “Let’s finish our three rather serious infrastructure projects and wait at least for the conclusion of construction of the terminal in 2023, then I will be ready to meet with you again and discuss our prospects.”

(63.7730 rubles – U.S. $1)

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