ICU buys Ukrainian subsidiary of Russian railway operator FESCO
ICU Investment Group has acquired Transgarant-Ukraine, a subsidiary of the Russian FESCO group's railway operator Firm Transgarant LLC through Cyprus Aina Management Ltd.
ICU's press service confirmed the closure of the deal in a comment to Interfax-Ukraine.
"The fleet of freight cars is the main asset of this enterprise. Amid the shortage of rolling stock in Ukraine and the high demand for it, we view this potential acquisition as a profitable investment that will keep the asset in the country," ICU told Interfax-Ukraine.
Earlier, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine said that Aina Management Ltd. carries out activities to manage the corporate rights of affiliated business entities. It is part of the ICU group, which is controlled by Makar Paseniuk and Kostiantyn Stetsenko.
Market players say that ICU was mulling over the possibility of a joint freight car venture with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Transgarant-Ukraine's website says that the firm has been operating on the railway transportation market since 2003; it is engaged in transportation of goods by rail both in and outside Ukraine, namely in the CIS and Baltic countries. It is headquartered in Kyiv, but it has offices in Donetsk and Dnipro. Annually, it handles over 8 million tonnes of freight on the average. It has about 3,000 freight cars, including 2,500 own gondola cars and pellet wagons.