Finnish VR bought Allegro trains belonging to a joint venture with Russian Railways

Finnish VR bought Allegro trains belonging to a joint venture with Russian Railways

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The Finnish railway operator VR Group bought out the Allegro high-speed trains owned by the joint venture (JV) VR and Russian Railways Oy Karelian Trains. This was reported by the press service of the Finnish company.

“The Russian owner has repeatedly neglected its financial obligations to the joint venture. Today, December 14, VR purchased the JV’s loans and took possession of the trains on the basis of a lien. In domestic intercity traffic, trains will be put into operation in 2025,” the statement says. message on the website of the Finnish operator.

This decision, according to VR, is due to the fact that Russian Railways did not fulfill its financial obligations on loans to Oy Karelian Trains. It is noted that negotiations between the Finnish and Russian parties, which lasted more than a year and a half, did not produce results, and in June 2023 the joint venture was no longer able to repay the loans.

Oy Karelian Trains is a joint venture created on November 23, 2006 by Russian Railways and VR Group for transportation on the St. Petersburg-Helsinki route using Allegro trains. Oy Karelian Trains is registered in Helsinki, VR and Russian Railways each own 50% of the shares in the joint venture.

As of March 28, 2022, VR Group stopped passenger services between Finland and Russia and unilaterally terminated contracts that were supposed to be valid until December 31, 2022. In February, JSC Russian Railways achieved the transfer of proceedings to the Russian Federation, and in April a hearing was held on the claim to compel VR Group to fulfill its obligations. As part of this dispute, the court seized the share of 99.99% of VR Group PLC in its Russian subsidiary Finnlog LLC, prohibited the alienation of the LLC’s property and suspended the liquidation of this company.

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