The company, whose co-owners include Russian Railways and billionaires Ziyavudin Magomedov, Alexander Abramov and Roman Abramovich, accused the antimonopoly agency of using unreliable data
“Transcontainer”, co-owners of which are Russian Railways (50.2%) and structures of billionaires Ziyavudin Magomedov # 185 (24.51%), Alexander Abramov # 21 and Roman Abramovich # 17 (together – 24.5%), appealed in court the decision of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), which on 23 October 2017 denied the application to purchase the terminal in St. Petersburg from the Global Ports group for 1.9 billion rubles.
The statement of claim was drawn up on February 19, 2018, was received in court on April 9, 2018. And on April 11, 2018, it was accepted for production, it follows from the data in the Arbitration Case File.
In August 2017, Transcontainer agreed to buy the St. Petersburg terminal from Global Ports (ZAO Logistics-Terminal) for 1.9 billion rubles. But on October 23, 2017, the FAS refused to approve the deal. The agency decided that the terminal’s share in the market of container handling in the “dry ports” of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region had reached 60%, and the cargo turnover had approached the normative capacity.
Transcontainer blamed FAS for erroneous definition of geographical and product boundaries of the market of terminal processing of containers, justified with the use of unreliable data. According to the company, the share of CJSC Logistics-Terminal among the “dry ports” of the region does not exceed 30%. “The FAS assertion about the share of 60% and the possibility of unilateral influence on the general conditions of container transportation in the whole region seems unreasonable to us,” Victor Markov, deputy head of Transcontainer, told Interfax last October.
In mid-March, Transcontainer sent a letter to the FAS outlining its position in an attempt to persuade the antimonopoly service to approve the deal.
The FAS refused. A representative of the antimonopoly service then explained to Interfax that the agency was working on the rules of non-discriminatory access to terminals and “dry ports” in the conditions of the planned privatization of Transcontainer. “The organization is recommended to take measures to prevent a shortage of carrying capacity – platforms, instead of trying to strengthen its presence in the surplus segment of terminal capacity,” said a representative of the FAS.
“Transcontainer: impending privatization
“Transcontainer is Russia’s biggest container operator, operating the largest fleet of containers in Russia (about 70,000) and flatcars for their transportation (over 25,000 fitting platforms).
The company was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary of Russian Railways, in 2006 it was transformed into an open joint stock company, and in 2010 it went public. Russian Railways owns the controlling stake. Another 25.07% of the operator belongs to FESCO holding of Summa Group owned by Ziyavudin Magomedov and his partners. Yenisei Capital LLC, owned by Alexander Abramov and Roman Abramovich, owns a 24.51% stake.
Abramov and Abramovich’s structure bought 24.5051% 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 disclosed at the time. But, as a representative of Millhouse Capital (manages the assets of Roman Abramovich) John Mann told RBC, it was concluded at the market level. In December 2017, such a package of shares was worth almost 15 billion rubles.
In early December 2017, deputy head of Russian Railways Andrei Starkov said that the government supported the idea of the railway monopoly to create a competitor to Transcontainer after the sale of the transport monopoly’s 50% stake in the carrier.
It was planned that the sale of the 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 required for the tender in April have not yet begun. Therefore, the sale of the stake may not take place at the appointed time.
Summa Group, billionaire Vladimir Lisin’s UCL Group #1 (UCL even asked the Ministry of Economic Development in late 2017 to “limit the investment activity of Transcontainer during the sale of the operator’s controlling stake”), Sergei Shishkarev’s Delo Group and the port operator Global Ports have also expressed interest in the asset.
Until recently, a 30.75% stake in Global Ports was held through Transportation Investments Holding Ltd (“N-Trans”) by billionaires Nikita Mishin # 139, Konstantin Nikolaev # 140 and Andrey Filatov # 145. In late December 2017, it became known that Mishin, Nikolaev and Filatov had signed an agreement to sell their stake in Global Ports to Sergei Shishkarev’s Delo Group. The sold stake, based on data from the London Stock Exchange, where Global Ports Investments is traded, was valued at $238 million.
