OREANDA-NEWS. The Board of Directors of Russian Railways approved the details of the IPO of its TransContainer subsidiary after discussing the schedule.
At the moment, interest in Russian transport assets on the part of leading international investment funds is very high. “This high demand,” said Fyodor Andreev, Senior Vice-President at Russian Railways, “will allow the Company to sell successfully a stake in TransContainer.”


UBS, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche UFG, Credit Suisse, Rothschild and Troika Dialogue have already been working on the best strategy to achieve the maximum benefit for Russian Railways on the capital markets. The shares will be sold in three stages. A private placement of 10-15% of TransContainer’s shares through a tender is scheduled for 2007. This placement will pave the way for the future IPO. In the second stage, due in 2008, an IPO will be held for 25-30% of the shares on the Moscow Intercurrency Exchange and the Russian Trading System (RTS). In the third and final phase in 2009, an additional share issue of TransContainer and of Russian Railways will be made on the Moscow Intercurrency Exchange.

The end of this final stage will reduce the holding of Russian Railways to 50+1% of the shares and attract considerable funds for the future development of TransContainer to be used for the purchase of additional assets for the business. In order to maximise the cost during this final stage, an additional issue may be made simultaneously on the London Stock Exchange.