Co-owners of RTK, Rail Garant to swap board seats - source
MOSCOW. Aug 14 (Interfax) - The co-owners of rail freight operators RTK and Rail Garant are swapping seats on the companies' boards of directors, a source close to the companies told Interfax.
The Rail Garant board will be joined by Konstantin Zasov and Konstantin Sintsov of RTK, while Rail Garant's Sergei Smyslov and Sergei Guschin will join the board of RTK.
It was reported earlier that the companies are in merger talks, though the companies themselves are not commenting on this information. If this happens, the merged company would have a fleet of more than 74,000 railcars and become Russia's third largest rail freight operator after Vladimir Lisin's Freight One and Russian Railways' (RZD) Federal Freight Company, overtaking NefteTransService and Globaltrans. The company's EBITDA could top 30 billion rubles in two years.
However, the source, who is familiar with the deal, told Interfax that the move to join one another's boards does not yet mean a merger. "This is an opportunity to take a closer look at the business of possible partners," he said.
Rail Garant, which is equally owned by Smyslov and Guschin, operates 37,000 railcars, including over 15,000 gondola cars, about 5,000 tank cars, as well as flatcars, boxcars, hopper cars and pipe carriers. The company posted revenue of 6.8 billion rubles in the first half of 2012 and EBITDA of 2.9 billion rubles.
RTK, the principal owners of which are Zasov and Sintsov, includes rail freight operators A-Trans, Gruzovaya Kompaniya, LP Trans, Rustranskom and Rusagrotrans. The combined fleet numbers 37,000 railcars, including over 31,000 grain cars (some converted to mineral cars). Revenue topped 35 billion rubles in 2012 and EBITDA amounted to 9.8 billion rubles.