Upon the completion of the deal, FESCO became a 100% owner of the railway company, which is the fourth largest private rolling stock operator in Russia. Transgarant provides transportation of bulk commercial goods by railway. The Company, including its subsidiaries, controls over 13.4 thousand railcars. Transgarant cargo turnover for 2006 amounted to 24.8 billion ton/km. The annual shipment volume is over 16 million tons. The Company revenues in accordance with audited IFRS results for 2005 amounted to US$ 142 million. This transaction follows the acquisition of a 50% stake in Transgarant completed by FESCO Group in October 2006. FESCO acquired the remaining shares in exchange for around 12% of its share capital.
Evgeny Ambrosov, President & CEO of FESCO Group, commented: “The acquisition of Transgarant is another step in our overall strategy to create the largest inter-modal transport group in Russia, combining marine and railway transportation, stevedoring and logistic centres. We believe that the integration of shipping and railway operations with terminal services will provide the best solution to our clients needs. We expect to meet the demand for combined solutions by our clients through the offering of highly competitive service both on price and quality”.
FESCO Transport Group is created on the basis of Far Eastern Shipping Company - one of the largest and oldest transport companies in Russia, founded in 1880. The strategy of group development is aimed at turning FESCO into an integrated multimodal transportation & logistics company, offering its clients a complete set of services for "door to door" delivery of containers and bulked cargos both on the domestic market and between Russia, Europe and South-East Asia. Companies of the Group provide marine shipping, rail transportation and trucking services, stevedoring services at the company’s terminals in Russian ports, icebreaker assistance to vessels in the Far East of Russia, Eastern sector of Arctic, Baltic Oceanographers and Antarctic, and services biggest oil and gas companies in the Far East. The controlling shareholder of FESCO is “Industrial Investors” Group. For further information, please visit our web-site www.fesco.ru or call Company press-center in Vladivostok +7 (4232) 52-10-76 or Moscow +7 (095) 540-80-01.