PRESS: Govt may sell Russian Railway’s TransContainer stake openly

MOSCOW, Nov 23 (PRIME) -- The Russian government has offered to sell 50% plus two shares that Russian Railways owns in container railway operator TransContainer through an open auction with VTB Capital acting as a financial consultant, Kommersant business daily reported on Thursday quoting First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov’s report.

The government wants to sell TransContainer to a qualified investor – a syndicate or a consortium with a possible minority participation of a financial investor – which has relevant competences and is interested in development of container and multimodal transportation between Europe and Asia, Kommersant said quoting the report.

VTB Capital plans to start working with potential investors on January 15 to finalize the deal in April, the business daily cited Shuvalov’s report as saying.

Previous contenders for the stake are not ready to discuss the news -- multi-industry holding Summa Group of businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov, UCL Holding of businessman Vladimir Lisin, and container terminal operator Global Ports, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Delo group declined to comment.

A protocol of a November 15 meeting, where the sale was discussed, says that Russian Railways would like to use the money received from the sale to create a new logistics operator that would compete with TransContainer.

“If the decision to sell TransContainer is made, we would still like to get the right to create a second operator under TransContainer’s business model. The holding has enough competences in establishing such a large-scale business of container transportation, which includes services of operator and a forwarding agent,” a Russian Railways representative told Kommersant.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service Deputy Head Alexander Neradko said that the government should allow Russian Railways to create its own operator basing on the remaining assets if TransContainer is sold at an auction. “Russian Railways has all the possibilities to create a new operator. The FAS is against prohibition of that after the deal,” a representative of the service told the business daily.

The government’s analytical center said earlier it would be more reasonable to sell up to 75% in TransContainer at an open auction – 24.5% from private pension fund Blagosostoyanie and 50% from Russian Railways. Summa Group, which already holds 25.07% in TransContainer, said before it was ready to buy 25% in the company immediately and 25% more via an option agreement.

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