Alexey Taicher sold Transfin-M

A new major transaction has taken place on the railway operating market, the fourth in the last three months. Alexey Taicher, who owned the leasing company Transfin-M, which, in turn, controls the eighth largest railway operator Atlant with 61 thousand fleet units, sold the company and left the railway business. The buyer was closed-end mutual investment funds (closed-end mutual investment funds), presumably associated with the management of Transfin-M. According to experts, the transaction is taking place in attractive market conditions, not only for operations, but also for operational leasing, which Transfin-M specializes in.

Alexey Taicher sold Transfin-M, as follows from the company’s disclosure on February 22. The buyer of 70% was the closed mutual fund “Investservice” under the management of the management company “Aurum Investment”, 30% – the closed mutual fund “Taler” under the management of Tethys Capital LLC, according to the reports.

Transfin-M confirmed the information about the change of owner, refraining from other comments. A representative of Alexei Taicher also confirmed to Kommersant the fact of the businessman’s withdrawal from the shareholders of Transfin-M, clarifying that the company’s management was the buyer. According to him, the sale price is market price. He refused to disclose the list of buyers and the size of shares, citing the terms of the confidentiality agreement.

A Kommersant source on the market suggests that the company’s general director Maxim Anishchenkov, as well as members of the board of directors Alexander Goland and Ivan Blagodatskikh, could become the owners of Transfin-M. All three were partners of Alexey Taicher in 2019 when purchasing a leasing company from NPF Blagosostoyanie and had the pre-emptive right to repurchase shares, he says.

A source familiar with the businessman’s plans said that Alexey Taicher is considering the possibility of investing in projects in the field of logistics and financial technology. A source close to the buyers explained to Kommersant that the operating market, in their opinion, has stabilized sufficiently and further consolidation will help keep the current situation in balance. The new owners of Transfin-M plan to preserve and develop all the company’s core divisions, he says.

This is the fourth major transaction in three months on the railway rolling stock operating market. For more details on the change of owners of the first, third and sixth largest companies, see “Kommersant” dated February 2. IPEM Deputy General Director Vladimir Savchuk believes that transactions will continue, perhaps between smaller companies.

Now the operating leasing market is very attractive, especially for those companies that have their own fleet, says the head of Infoline-Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov. Traffic on the network is slow, operating profitability is high, no changes are expected, moreover, rates tend to rise. There are two problematic segments – timber and universal platforms; in the rest, the demand for operating leasing services remains high and will remain at this level at least in the 2025 horizon. According to the forecast of Infoline-Analytics, by the fourth quarter, rental rates for standard and innovative gondola cars under long-term contracts are expected to increase by 9%, to 3.2 thousand and 3.7 thousand rubles. per car per day, respectively, for large cubic oil and gasoline tanks – by 19%, up to 2.7 thousand rubles, for grain carriers – by 29%, up to 5.2 thousand rubles.

Natalya Skorlygina