Russian Railways not opposed to selling 25% of Freight One to Lisin
NOVOSIBIRSK/MOSCOW. April 17 (Interfax) - Russian Railways (RZD) is not opposed to selling its remaining 25% stake in Freight One, the country's largest freight car operator, to companies controlled by billionaire Vladimir Lisin, RZD president Vladimir Yakunin told reporters on Tuesday.
"Indeed, Vladimir Sergeevich Lisin has made such a proposal, informally for now, to assess the reaction of RZD management," Yakunin said.
He said Freight One tries to fit into RZD's process plans, and that the companies "work well together." So taking into account verbal assurances that Freight One would provide railcars "in extraordinary situations" with subsequent compensation of these costs by the shipper, Yakunin said he sees no reason to oppose the sale of this stake.
However, the decision on the timing for a possible sale of the stake would be made by the government, Yakunin said.
Ideas coming to fruition
Kommersant reported that the deal is being actively lobbied by steel magnate Vladimir Lisin. LLC Independent Transport Company (NTK), a division of Lisin's UCL transport group, bought 75% minus two shares in Freight One for 125.5 billion rubles at an auction in October 2011. Freight One, which was previously wholly owned by RZD, owns more than 190,000 railcars of various type.
NTK chief executive Alexander Pechurin told Interfax in February that the company "would not be against" buying the remaining Freight One shares from RZD. "Then we could talk about merging Freight One and NTK," he said, adding that the companies were currently "two different organizations" and the issue of their merger was moot.
Right after the auction, Oleg Bukin, who was managing director of UCL at the time, said NTK would make an offer to RZD to buy out the remaining 25% of shares in Freight One at the auction price. In that case, RZD could earn about 42 billion rubles if it accepts the offer.
Rusagrotrans not part of it
There were reports Monday that the "government and RZD are actively discussing a deal." This issue will probably be considered at an upcoming meeting of the RZD board of directors, Kommersant reported one source as saying. According to RZD, the next board meeting will be held in mid-May. However, another source cited by the paper said "there's a feeling that RZD will try to resolve this issue before the inauguration of Vladimir Putin" on May 7.
Market sources cited by the paper believe Lisin has managed to reach an agreement to buy out the remaining Freight One shares in exchange for divesting his stake in Rusagrotrans, Russia's largest grain carrier. Freight One controls 46% of Rusagrotrans.
But an official at UCL told Interfax that this is just conjecture. "I can't confirm or deny this information - these are just rumors at the moment," he said.
Speaking in Novosibirsk on Tuesday, Yakunin essentially denied this, saying that RZD sees no reason to buy 49% of Rusagrotrans. "The thing is, Rusagrotrans is a private company and I don't see the point for RZD of buying these 49%," Yakunin said.
Yakunin said it was more likely that this stake would be bought by Rusagrotrans' principal shareholder. Freight One previously owned 51% of Rusagrotrans, and LLC Rustranskom owned the other 49%, but then Rustranskom increased its take to 54.3% by giving Rusagrotrans 5,800 hopper cars for shipping grain.
"Particularly since the owners of Freight One need to pay considerable amounts, which they are supposed to pay according to the auction for the acquired assets," Yakunin said. RZD vice president Salman Babayev said in March that it would make sense for Freight One to completely sell its stake in Rusagrotrans.
Personal contacts
An official at UCL contacted by Interfax on Tuesday could not confirm whether Lisin had made a proposal to RZD. "I don't know what Vladimir Sergeevich is doing personally. And the proposal to Yakunin, as far as I understand from what the latter said, was made informally," he said.
A high-ranking Interfax source at RZD said the sale of the Freight One stake is not part of the company's financial plan for 2012. He also said he was not aware of any plans for RZD to divest its stake in Freight One, or of any supposed agreements with Lisin.
Interfax sources at the Economic Development Ministry and Transport Ministry are also unaware of any pending deal with RZD's remaining stake of 25% plus one share in Freight One.
However, the official at the Economic Development Ministry told Interfax that his ministry was unlikely to oppose the sale of RZD's 25% stake in Freight One. "They need money to develop infrastructure. Only the sale must be as transparent as possible," he said.