AFK Sistema wraps up purchase of 100% of SG-Trans stock on Thurs
MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax) - OJSC AFK Sistema completed its purchase of all the stock in Russia's biggest independent liquid natural gas (LNG) transporter OJSC SG-Trans, Sistema said.
Sistema inked an agreement to acquire the railway operator on Tuesday. This was preceded by the issue of a governmental resolution confirming Sistema as the winner of a competitive selection. Sistema paid 22.77 billion rubles for SG-Trans.
Now Sistema owns and operates companies with rolling stock numbering 19,500. With the acquisition of SG-Trans, that figure will rise to roughly 34,500 freight cars.
Sistema plans to consolidate SG-Trans and its other railroad assets on the basis of Financial Alliance, a joint venture that is equally controlled by Sistema oil subsidiary Bashneft and the venture's management, headed by its board chairman Alexei Taicher, the former financial director of Freight One, and CEO Vladimir Yakovina, the former vice president of CFTO RZD. Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) also recently gave Sistema the go-ahead to buy Bashneft's 50% stake in Financial Alliance. This deal might be completed at the beginning of next year, Sistema President Mikhail Shamolin said in a conference call on Tuesday. The name 'UniRail' is being considered as the brand under which the consolidated company would operate.
SG-Trans is the largest independent operator on the Russian market for LNG transportation services. SG-Trans business currently consists of two segments: transportation, and gas storage and retail. SG-Trans posted RAS revenues of 8.5 billion rubles, EBITDA of 1.4 billion rubles and net income of 0.4 billion rubles in 2011. The transportation segment accounted for approximately 60%, or 4.9 billion rubles of SG-Trans' revenues in 2011.
SG-Trans currently maintains a fleet of approximately 15,000 railcars (average age 24.5 years), including cars specially equipped to transport LPG and other natural gas liquids. More than 90% of the fleet is company-owned, and the rest is leased. Tank cars with capacity of 54 cubic meters make up 47% of the fleet, tanks cars with capacity of 73-75 cubic meters make up 51%, and the rest are tank cars for carrying pentane and oil products.
SG-Trans has a 37% share of Russia's LPG shipping market. The company carried 5.4 million tonnes in 2011. It biggest clients are state oil major Rosneft (21% of shipments), petrochemicals group Sibur (19%), Lukoil (17%) and independent gas producer Novatek (16%).
SG-Trans also operates nine maintenance and service stations for LPG tank cars, and 12 LPG terminals which accept, store and sell LPG through wholesale distribution chains in Russia. It also operates a chain of 64 gas stations in 20 regions across Russia.