Actuality November, 15, 2007

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of JSC TransContainer (a subsidiary of JSC Russian Railways) can be postponed till 2008.

“We planned the offering of JSC TransContainer this year, but one and a half month is left. If we don’t manage, we will postpone it till 2008”, said Igor Levitin, the head of Ministry of Transport. According to him, JSC Russian Railways can’t manage to hold an IPO till the end of the year, and delays in this process are conditioned by unsettlement of property and real estate matters with assets.

Levitin reported also, that the IPO entry of the great amount of JSC Russian Railways subsidiaries is expected in 2008.

According to the estimations of the head of Ministry of Transport, the monopoly will get about RUR150 bln ($6 bln) from the sale of stakes in subsidiaries and non-core assets by 2010.

JSC TransContainer, a subsidiary of JSC Russian Railways, is Russia’s national container operator. The company appeared as the branch of just formed JSC Russian Railways on October, 2003. Legal incorporation of JSC TransContainer, reorganized from JSC Russian Railways’ branch, was registered on March, 2006. From July, 1, 2006 the company began independent economic activity. 17 branches of JSC TransContainer cover the entire Russian railway network. The company income totaled more than 167,1 mln euro for July-December, 2006, and the net income exceeded 41,3 mln euro.

JSC Russian Railways was set up on the basis of former Ministry of Railways of Russian Federation on October, 2003. It is the vertically-integrated company, providing services of freight and passenger transportations, and infrastructure also. The company belongs to the Russian Federation only. JSC Russian Railways is one of the biggest railway companies in the world with the huge volume of freight and passenger transportations, and among the three largest transport companies of the world. Over 1,3 bln passengers travel via Russian Railways annually as well as 1,3 bln tons of freight is transported. JSC Russian Railways provides 39% of the total freight turnover and about 41% of the passenger turnover of the country. The company assets include more than 20,000 thousands of freight and passenger locomotives, 670,000 of freight and passenger carriages, stations and railway stations, depots and dispatcher systems. The company possesses own research-and-development complex and the range of assets, not included in the sphere of its basic activity. The most meaningful are in the sphere of telecommunications and mortgage lending. JSC Russian Railways is the largest employer in Russia, numbering more than 1,3 mln employees. In 2006 the Russian railways transported 1 bln 352 mln 800 ths passengers (+2,5% to the 2005 indices) and 1 bln 311 mln 312 ths tons of freight (+3%).