Russian Railways might sell stake in TGK-14 as BAM/Trans-Siberian have power
MOSCOW. Nov 18 (Interfax) - Russian Railways (RZD) acquired a stake in generating company TGK-14 to provide power for the expanding Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) and Trans-Siberian Railway, but now this issue is less acute so under certain circumstances RZD is prepared to discuss selling this stake, a senior RZD executive said on Thursday.
"When the opportunity arises in terms of, among other things, minimizing our formal losses, we will consider it," RZD vice president Andrei Starkov said at a briefing.
"The company acquired [the stake] with a view to energy supplies for the eastern area of operations, and at that time this was a real problem. Subsequently, the investment programs of our energy companies, including with government support, created conditions so that this issue has become less acute going forward. And now all of the conditions have been created so that power in the eastern area of operations corresponds to the amount of traffic that is forecast or that there is now," Starkov said, commenting on the extent to which this is a core asset for RZD.
