PRESS: Summa seeks creation of national container operator

MOSCOW, May 5 (PRIME) -- Russian multi-industry holding Summa Group has proposed creating a national container operator around its assets with a controlling stake in TransContainer, Kommersant business daily reported Friday citing a letter of Summa’s co-owner Ziyavudin Magomedov to President Vladimir Putin.

Summa currently holds 25.07% in TransContainer. United Transport Logistics Company of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan owns 50% plus two shares in TransContainer, but Russian Railways earlier said it plans to get the stake back. The further fate of this stake has not been defined yet.

Russia should be ahead of China, which is creating “integrated Eurasian economic space” around itself, Magomedov said in the letter asking Putin to support the project. For this, Russia should create a national logistics platform around its key container assets in the shortest term through integration of TransContainer and Far Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO), where Summa holds 32.5%, with participation of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), he said. Summa and oil pipeline monopoly Transneft own 50.1% in TransContainer on a parity basis.

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has already ordered relevant government bodies to analyze the project, the daily said.

A spokesperson for Summa confirmed the group’s interest in getting a controlling stake in TransContainer, but declined to discuss details.

Russian Railways believes that Summa’s project is not reasonable because the estimate of TransContainer’s shareholder value is below the fair level and the change of shareholders will bring no additional synergy either for Russian Railways or for the market.

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