Transmashholding not prepared for Alstom to up stake in company
SOCHI. Oct 24 (Interfax) - Russian train manufacturer Transmashholding (TMH) is not prepared for Alstom to increase its stake in the company.
"We're not holding [negotiations] and we're not prepared to," TMH CEO Kirill Lipa told Interfax on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa economic forum in Sochi on Wednesday when asked if negotiations are being held on increasing the French company's stake in TMH.
"These are not negotiations, these are general theoretical considerations. There are no negotiations," he said.
"I'm considered the controlling shareholder. That means that no one has more than me," Lipa said when asked about his stake in the group.
"I don't know what they wanted, I don't know anything about this," TMH shareholder Andrei Bokarev told Interfax on the sidelines of the forum. "They have 20%. If they wanted to increase [their stake], they would have talked to us about this," he said.
Bokarev also did not disclose the size of his stake in TMH. "Our Russian stake in TMH is 80%. [How much individual Russian shareholders own] is the internal affair of the shareholders themselves," he said.
After the redistribution of equity interest in TMH in 2018 after Locotech was included in the group, the head of Alstom's Russian division, Philippe Pegorier said that the French company might increase its stake in TMH in future. Alstom is confident that it would earn a return on its investment, as TMH has contracts to manufacture rolling stock for Russian Railways (RZD) , while a division of Locotech has contracts to service and repair this rolling stock, he said.