Translated material
Severstaltrans minus steel
The company's managers bought out Alexey Mordashov's share
Alexey Mordashov is leaving the shareholders of the transport and logistics company Severstaltrans, selling his 50 percent share to its managers - Konstantin Nikolaev, Nikita Mishin and Andrey Filatov, the company's press service reported. After closing the deal, the report says, they will become the owners of 100% of the authorized capital of the Severstaltrans group of companies (its annual turnover is $1.6 billion). As Severstaltrans spokeswoman Anna Vostrukhova explained, the partners will own the company in equal shares - each will own a third of the group's shares. She also said that after Mr. Mordashov leaves the shareholders, the group will be renamed - work is now underway on rebranding.The participants did not disclose the amount of the transaction. Analysts also found it difficult to evaluate it. But yesterday OJSC Severstal announced that it was buying out two key assets for it from Severstaltrans - the stevedoring company Neva-Metal and the forwarding company Neva-Metaltrans. “OJSC Severstal intends to spend $100 million on the purchase of these assets,” the metallurgical company said in a statement, “$98.7 million on the acquisition of Neva-Metal and $1.3 million— at Neva-Metaltrans. The company did not say what share of the total volume of cargo transshipment and turnover of Severstaltrans are these assets.
At the same time, Severstal admits that the acquisition of these two enterprises will allow the company to create an independent export logistics chain. Traditionally, the St. Petersburg port, on the territory of which Neva-Metal and Neva-Metaltrans operate, is the base for Severstal when transporting products for export to Europe and the USA. “With the purchase of these assets, we can fully provide ourselves with transshipment capacities in the northwestern region,” the company said.
The Severstal message also cites the words of the head and main shareholder of the group, Alexey Mordashov, who says that “these logistically important purchases for Severstal’s Russian enterprises will open up additional opportunities for the company for further growth and increasing the value of share capital.”
And Ms. Vostrukhova explained that Neva-Metal is a very significant company for the transshipment of metals: its annual cargo turnover is 2.5 million tons of cargo, with a total cargo turnover of 28 stevedoring companies operating in the St. Petersburg port of 50 million tons. “Given the fact that in our country there is a shortage of port capacities, including for the transshipment of metals,” notes the press secretary of Severstaltrans, “we can say that the purchase of Neva-Metal is strategic for Severstal "
Severstaltrans retains port facilities for container and refrigerated cargo transhipment, as well as structures associated with rail and road transportation: Severstaltrans CJSC of the same name, which is engaged in railway transfers, Sevtekhnotrans - the owner of rolling stock, Balttransservice, Novaya transportation company", Spacecom AS, Estonia (all rail transportation), "Transit Cargo Trans" (road transportation), "Eastern Stevedoring Company" (container transhipment, forwarding services), "Petrolesport" (transshipment of container, refrigerated cargo), Vladivostok Container Terminal (container transshipment), etc. In total, Severstaltrans unites more than 20 companies operating in various sectors of the transport business.
Analysts are convinced that Mr. Mordashov’s sale of his stake in Severstaltrans is an optimization of his business and does not carry any additional meaning, such as, for example, raising capital for possible mergers and acquisitions. According to Alexander Pukhaev from Deutsche UFG, it is likely that Mr. Mordashov decided to focus on Severstal as his main business, considering that the transport company did not provide sufficient growth. Uralsib FC analyst Kirill Chuiko is confident that the deal is either carried out in line with the optimization of the assets of Severstal itself, or “turned out to be timely”, and Mr. Mordashov used “a good opportunity to sell Severstaltrans at an interesting price.”
Let us recall that at the beginning of this year, Mr. Mordashov sold his stake in another “non-core” asset - the autobuilding company Severstal-auto - to his partner Vadim Shvetsov.