Economy Ministry will not set terms for SG-Trans contenders - source
ST. PETERSBURG. June 22 (Interfax) - The Russian Economic Development Ministry does not plan to set restrictive terms for contenders hoping to buy SG-Trans, despite some interested parties wanting them, a source familiar with the ministry's plans told Interfax.
"Renaissance Capital is handling the privatization of SG-Trans. It has already selected the potential buyers and now the question is whether any restrictions will be placed on these buyers. According to the latest proposal, as far as I know [the Economic Development Ministry] does not want to impose any such restrictions," the source said. He said he was referring to restrictions such as those set for buyers of Russian Railways subsidiary - Freight One in 2011.
At that time the talk was of a quantitative regulation of 10,000 carriages, which potential buyers had to have and experience of work on the rail shipments market. The source said such restrictions would not be imposed for the SG-Trans privatization. "The Economic Development Ministry is looking carefully at this issue again and will make a final decision [on the privatization terms]," the source said, adding that "there are documents to can launch the sale." The source did not speak about the value of the rail operator, saying there are various appraisals: one was carried out by the Federal State Property Management Agency Rosimuschestvo as the official owner of the package, another by Renaissance Capital as the organizer of the sale and the third by SG-Trans itself.
Within the perimeter of the deal are gas filling stations that the rail operator owns. This business is not going to be spun out ahead of the privatization, although it accounts for a considerable share of SG-Trans revenue (35%, although that is due to the fact that SG-Trans is an intermediary in the sale of gas). "We need to buy gas and sell it. That is why the revenue is high, because volumes are high," he said.
