Transcontainer challenged the ban by FAS on the purchase of the terminal

The company, among co-owners of which RZhD and billionaires Ziyavudin Magomedov, Alexander Abramov and Roman Abramovich, accused the antimonopoly authority of using inaccurate data.
17.04.2018
Forbes
Origin source
Transcontainer, owned by Russian Railways (50.2%) and the structure of billionaires Ziyavudin Magomedov (24.51%), Alexander Abramov and Roman Abramovich (together - 24.5%), appealed against the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) , which on October 23, 2017 refused to satisfy the request for the purchase of the terminal in St. Petersburg from the group Global Ports for 1.9 billion rubles.

The statement of claim was drawn up on February 19, 2018, entered the court on April 9, 2018. And on April 11, 2018, it was accepted for production, it follows from the data in the file of arbitration cases.

In August 2017, Transcontainer agreed to purchase a terminal from St. Petersburg's Global Ports terminal in Moscow (ZAO Logistics-Terminal) for 1.9 billion rubles. But on October 23, 2017, the FAS refused to approve the deal. The department decided that the share of the terminal in the container handling market in the "dry ports" of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region reached 60%, while the cargo turnover approached the normative capacity.

In "Transcontainer" FAS was accused of mistakenly determining the geographical and product boundaries of the terminal processing of containers market, based on false data. According to the company, the share of UAB "Logistics-Terminal" among the "dry ports" of the region does not exceed 30%. "The approval of the FAS about a 60% share and the possibility of unilateral influence on the general conditions of container transportation throughout the region seems to us unreasonable," Deputy Head of Transcontainer Viktor Markov said to Interfax last October.

In the middle of March, Transcontainer sent a letter to FAS, setting out its position, trying to convince the antimonopoly service to agree on the deal.

FAS refused. As explained to Interfax by the representative of the antimonopoly service, the agency is working on rules for non-discriminatory access to terminals and dry ports in the context of the planned privatization of Transcontainer. "The organization is recommended to take measures to prevent a shortage of capacity - platforms, instead of trying to increase the presence of terminal capacities in the surplus segment," the FAS spokesman said.

TransContainer: The Coming Privatization

Transcontainer is the largest Russian container operator operating the largest container fleet in Russia (about 70,000 units) and platform cars for their transportation (more than 25,000 fitting platforms).

The company was established in 2003 as a subsidiary of RZD, in 2006 it was transformed into an open joint-stock company, and in 2010 entered the IPO. The control package of shares is owned by the Russian Railways. Another 25.07% stake in the operator belongs to the holding company FESCO "Sum" Ziyavudin Magomedov and his partners. A package of 24.51% is owned by LLC "Yenisei Capital" Alexander Abramov and Roman Abramovich.

The structure of Abramov and Abramovich bought 24.5051% of the shares of Transcontainer on December 6, 2017. The seller was NPF "Blagosostoyanie", established with the participation of Russian Railways.

The amount of the deal was not reported at that time. But, according to RBC representative Millhouse Capital (manages assets of Roman Abramovich) John Mann, it was concluded at a market level. In December 2017, such a stake was worth almost 15 billion rubles.

In early December 2017, Deputy Railways Andrei Starkov said that the government supported the idea of ​​a railway monopoly to create a competitor to Transcontainer after the sale of the transport monopoly owned 50% of the carrier's shares.

It was planned that the sale of a controlling stake in Transcontainer would be completed in April 2018. But in February deputy head of the Ministry of Transport Alan Lushnikov said that the procedures necessary for holding the contest in April have not yet begun. And therefore, at the appointed time, the sale of the package may not take place.

Interest in the asset was also shown by the group "Summa", UCL Group billionaire Vladimir Lisin (UCL in late 2017 even asked the Ministry of Economic Development "to limit the investment activity of" Transcontainer "for the period of sale of the controlling stake in the operator), the group" Delo "Sergei Shishkarev and the port operator Global Ports.

Until recently, billionaires Nikita Mishin, Konstantin Nikolaev and Andrey Filatov owned a 30.75% stake in Global Ports through Transportation Investments Holding Ltd ("N-Trans"). At the end of December 2017 it became known that Mishin, Nikolaev and Filatov signed an agreement on the sale of their stake in Global Ports to the group of companies "Delo" Sergei Shishkarev. The sold package, based on the London Stock Exchange, where Global Ports Investments is traded, was valued at $ 238 million.

Closing of the deal is expected in April, after receiving the approval of the regulator. Another 30.75% of Global Ports owns the Danish A.P. Moeller-Maersk A / S, 9% offshore companies Ilibrinio Establishment Limited and Polozio Enterprises Limited, Free float is 20.5% of the port operator.

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