Russian Railways plans to buy 49% of the logistics operator Railtransavto from Transgroup (owned by the structures of Andrey Bokarev and Iskander Makhmudov), sources close to both parties to the deal told Vedomosti. Russian Railways already owns 51% of the operator. The price of the deal, as well as the timing Vedomosti sources do not mention its closure. One of them only specified that the amount of the deal has not yet been agreed upon. A representative of Russian Railways declined to comment. It was not possible to contact a representative of Transgroup.

Railtransavto is a logistics operator that transports cars from the production site to the point of sale. Railtransavto's fleet consists of over 2,500 car-carrying wagons. The company plans to expand the fleet to 5,100 units. Railtransavto also has several terminals for reloading cars.

In 2011, Transgroup planned to buy out Russian Railways' share in Railtransavto. At that time, Transgroup co-owner Maxim Liksutov said that the deal could amount to 1.25-1.5 billion rubles (6-7 EBITDA). According to Mikhail Burmistrov, CEO of the Infoline-analytics agency, 49% of the company is currently worth 1.2-1.4 billion rubles. The company's value has not changed since 2011, he believes.

According to Burmistrov, the purchase of Railtransavto may be connected with the development of business in Russia of another subsidiary of Russian Railways, Gefco (75% owned by the railway monopoly, 25% by Peugeot-Citroen). The monopoly acquired Gefco at the end of 2012 for 800 million euros. Gefco's fleet includes 3,500 containers, 3,800 car carriers and 30 vessels for the transportation of rolling cargo, including automotive equipment. Russian Railways expects the volume of the 3PL/4PL logistics services market (Gefco's segment) in Russia to grow in the next 10 years. 7 times - from 2 billion euros in 2012 to 15 billion euros in 2022, a representative of Russian Railways told Vedomosti.

Together with the railways of Belarus and Kazakhstan, Russian Railways plans to create a United Transport and Logistics Company. The monopoly will transfer 100% of another of its logistics structures, Russian Railways Logistics, and a controlling stake in TransContainer to it.

Russian Railways unloads Transgroup