"Transcontainer"

railway container operator. Revenue (IFRS, 2009) – 16.4 billion rubles, Net profit – 589.61 million rubles.

At the IPO, TransContainer owners will sell up to 40% of its shares at a price of no less than 2,311.3 rubles per share, the company reported on Friday. Thus, the entire TransContainer is valued at 32.1 billion rubles. This value is minimal: if investors value the company lower, the placement will not take place, notes a representative of Russian Railways.

The intention to hold an IPO of TransContainer this year has been repeatedly mentioned by the President of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin. In April, the board of directors of the monopoly approved a plan to sell shares in 18 of its subsidiaries, including 35% minus 2 shares of TransContainer (Russian Railways' share in the operator is 85%). This is the number of shares that Russian Railways intends to sell, and other shareholders intend to offer another 5%, a representative of the monopoly specified. The placement is expected to be held on the London and Russian stock exchanges, he said. A representative of TransContainer declined to comment.

In addition to Russian Railways, shares will be sold by Moore Transcontainer Ltd and GLG Emerging Markets Special Situations Fund, TransContainer reported. It was not possible to obtain comments from representatives of both minority shareholders yesterday. Together, they bought 5.8% of the container operator's shares during its private placement in January 2008. But the third minority shareholder, the EBRD, which bought 9.2% of TransContainer shares at the time, on the contrary, wants to increase its stake, Yakunin said in June. The EBRD representative declined to comment.

During the private placement, TransContainer was valued at 52.2 billion rubles, 63% more than the price announced on Friday. However, earlier this year, Russian Railways indicated an even more modest figure in its presentation: 31.8 billion rubles.

Currently, the fair value of TransContainer is about $1.5 billion, according to VTB Capital analyst Elena Sakhnova. She believes in the success of the company's IPO: there is only one public railway company in Russia - Globaltrans, and there will be demand for shares of other companies in the industry.

Containers have become cheaper