OREANDA-NEWS. On August 11, 2008 The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has, through a private placement, acquired for US120 million an equity stake representing 3.8 percent of the ordinary shares of OJSC Far-Eastern Shipping Company (FESCO), Russia’s major integrated inter-modal freight transport company combining shipping, railways and port facilities, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

The acquisition will give the EBRD a stake in the overhaul of the Russian transport market through FESCO’s innovative strategy of creating, as Russia’s third largest shipping company, a broad-based logistics operator providing a single service chain for its customers. The investment will give the Bank the right to have a representative on the Company’s Investment Committee.

Thanks to its spread of strategic transport assets stretching from the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, FESCO is well placed to capitalise on Russia’s growing foreign trade and its booming volumes of transit shipments on Asia-Europe routes. The company is focusing on its container logistics segment, an area of potential high growth in view of the relatively low use of containers to date.

The EBRD welcomes FESCO’s commitment to improve the company’s corporate governance and environmental procedures and is pleased to become a shareholder of the company which is pioneering integrated inter-modal services in Russia , said Sue Barrett, the EBRD’s Director for Transport.

The EBRD’s acquisition of its stake follows an offering made by FESCO of new shares comprising 25 percent of the Company’s share capital. The new share issue raised US637 million.
FESCO is listed on the RTS (Russian Trading System).