Russia's N-Trans consolidated its port assets

Updated August 18, 2008

   N-Trans Group of Companies consolidated its port assets under the structure named Global Ports by analogy with the railway company Globaltrans, 29% of which the Group sold on the LSE in spring. But N-Trans has probably to put off Global Ports’s IPO because of the unfavorable market situation.

   On August, 17, N-Trans Group of Companies (former Severstaltrans) reported about the completion of its port assets’ consolidation. Global Ports Investments (GPI), incorporated in February on Cyprus, became the owner of the second and the third largest container terminals in St. Petersburg’s seaport - Petrolesport and Moby Dik; Yanino in the Leningrad area, the logistic container terminal; the Vostochnaya Stevedore Company (VSC), the largest container terminal in the Far East; as well as two terminals in Finland (Multi-Link Kotka and Multi-Link Helsinki) and five land terminals in Finland and Poland. The co-owners of such terminals as Moby Dik, Yanino and the Finn Multi-Link are the Finn-Norwegian operator Container Finance Oy (50% in each) and the Arab Dubai Ports World that owns 25% in VSC. Moreover, GPI’s assets comprise 50% of N-Trans’s stocks in the Estonian oil products transshipment terminal Vopak E.O.S (VEOS).

   "The successful placement of the railway business has obviously inspired N-Trans’s stockholders", the head of Ingosstrakh-Investments analytical department Evgeny Shago says. In May, the Group held Globaltrans’ IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that consolidated the part of its railway assets. On the background of the unfavorable market situation, 29% of Globaltrans’s stocks were sold for $449,5 million, and the placement became the largest Russian IPO since the early year. However, the intentions about placing Global Ports in N-Trans are not announced. "We consider various options of our projects’ funding, and stocks placement is only one of them", N-Trans press secretary Anna Vostrukhova said, and added that the decision about IPO holding would be based on the analysis of the current market situation.

   Head of Infranews research agency Aleksey Bezborodov is sure that N-Trans’s container terminals have the highest industry indices by capacity and the company doesn’t have any obstacles for entering the stock exchange. "But the company managers will not make any statement till the war in South Ossetia ends", as the expert supposes. Evgeny Shago adds that on the background of the world financial crisis the Russian assets go down, though the ports are "fundamentally" attractive for investors. "A year ago one could estimate the Group’s port assets at $300 million, but now they cost about $100 million", the analyst says. He also reminded that after the stocks of Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP) were placed in October of the previous year, they were stably falling, and now they are traded 58,6% lower of the placement price. In Mr. Shago’s opinion, Global Ports’s IPO takes place sooner or later, as the company has available facilities, and it can wait till the market situation improves.