Freight baggage FPC subsidiary's charter capital to be formed by 2015 - newspaper
MOSCOW. July 4. (Interfax) - The charter capital of OJSC Federal Passenger Company (FPC) subsidiary FPC Logistics, which transports freight baggage (in specialized cars as part of passenger trains) will be formed in two stages by 2015.
"FPC will contribute 450 cars in 2012-2013, after which it will conduct an additional issue in 2014, which will be paid for with the remaining 100 cars, as well as 30 luggage compartments (points for receiving and clearing freights). The overall cost of the property is estimated at 2.3 billion rubles," the newspaper Kommersant reported on Wednesday with reference to an OJSC Russian Railways (RZD) document at its disposal.
FPC Logistics should start operating as a 100% FPC subsidiary this year.
Information surfaced at the beginning of last year that RZD, which owns 100% minus one share in FPC, was planning for the freight baggage transportation company to start operating in 2011. At the time, RZD told Interfax that its business plan envisaged the establishment of a specialized FPC subsidiary, which would receive luggage cars belonging to the carrier. There are currently 589 such cars, although RZD did not say at the time how many would be injected into the new subsidiary's capital.
FPC Logistics "should depart from the model of operator activity - that is, transport from station to station - and become a multi-modal freight forwarding company," Kommersant reported. This will require investments of 11 billion rubles over 20 years, according to RZD's document. With these funds, FPC should boost its operating and financial figures, as well as its share of the market.
It is expected that transport volumes will climb from 28,000 tonnes a year to 207,000 tonnes in 2013, and to 463,000 tonnes in 2016. "As a comparison, the leader of this market - the company JelDorExpedition, which owns a quantity of luggage cars similar to that of FPC - transports around 300,000 tonnes of cargo a year," the publication said. Total freight baggage transport by railway is estimated at 1.2 million tonnes a year.
FPC currently carries out baggage transport at a loss, although the rest of the company's transport services are profitable, a source from one of the core companies told Kommersant. On the one hand, FPC rents out a significant portion of its cars, but on the other, "it is cramped by government-regulated tariffs," he said.
"If a small business arranges transport in the luggage compartment, it receives a fixed rate set by the government," the source said, adding that this rate "is not higher or lower than the market rate," although it deprives the company of flexibility.
RZD acknowledged that while FPC has the second-largest specialized car fleet in Russia, it only occupies a 3% share of the freight baggage transportation market. By 2015, its share should grow to 24%. By that time, the company will earn around 7 billion rubles in revenue and 500 million rubles in net profit, as envisaged in the concept of its creation. According to Interfax's SPARK database, JelDorExpedition generated 5.6 billion rubles in revenue and 415 million rubles in net profit in 2010.
FPC, established as part of structural reform in railroad transport, carries out all of Russia's long-distance passenger transport, with the exclusion of trains to Sakhalin, as well as high-speed Sapsan and Allegro.
