Russian Railways wants to sell Transtelcom - a newspaper

Moscow (Reuters)-“Russian Railways” plan to sell one of the largest fixed operators “ Transtelcom ” (TTK ”in the Russian Federation: Investbanks received an offer to consider the possibility of private placement of TTK or IPO shares, Kommersant said with reference to the top manager of the large operator and two investbankers. The size of the package that can be put up for sale, as well as how much it plans to attract Russian Railways , has not yet been determined. The representative of the monopoly refused to comment on Reuters this information. According to the Reuters source in banking circles, which also received this offer on the eve of this offer, Russian Railways hardly formed certain plans for the sale of her assets to date. “They are simply trying to decide how to move on, what steps to take, and are looking for consultant banks,” he said, noting that it is still impossible to clarify the terms of sale of this asset and a probable package. Another source of the newspaper, familiar with the situation, claims that Russian Railways considers the possibility of selling the operator a strategic investor. He claims that less than a month ago, the main shareholder of the AFK Sistema Vladimir Yevtushenkov showed interest in “transstelecom”. The parties even led to consultations together with the Kit Finance bank, but no decisions were made. In Transtelecom and Russian Railways, this information was not confirmed by the newspaper. However, a source close to the state monopoly recalls that the company is in terms of sale as a non -core asset, adding that the discussion of this issue is now coming from the Ministry of Economic Development (TTK is controlled by Russian Railways, which belongs to the state per 100 percent). The revenue of the TTK group of companies in IFRS in 2008 amounted to 27.5 billion rubles, net profit for 2008 - 1.9 billion rubles. The fact that TTK could become a public company, Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin announced back in 2006. In February, Yakunin also said that Russian Railways expects to help out from the sale of shares of his 30 “daughters” about 100 billion rubles.