Kommersant learned about negotiations on the sale of Lisin Freight One

The first freight company (PGK) of Vladimir Lisin may be sold to a new owner. About it reported Kommersant, citing six sources.

According to the publication, negotiations are now at an “advanced” stage, but have not yet been completed. It is clarified that the deal could be closed before the end of the year. The transaction itself will be of a monetary nature.

The buyer’s name is unknown. Among the contenders are Demetra-Holding, its shareholders or Rusagrotrans, which is part of the holding, as well as a co-owner of the leasing company Transfin-M, Atlanta and Brunswick Rail and the former general director of the subsidiary. Russian Railways Federal Freight Company (FGK) Alexey Taicher. However, all possible buyers either independently or through representatives denied this information. According to two of the publication’s interlocutors, the buyer could be “a completely new structure, although affiliated with well-known market participants.”

PGK was founded in 2007. In 2011, 75% minus two shares were acquired by Lisin’s structure, Independent Transport Company (NTK). Then the transaction cost was 125.5 billion rubles. A year later, Lisin’s structure consolidated 100% of Freight One, purchasing the remaining stake from Russian Railways for 50 billion rubles. Now PGK is considered the leader among railway transportation operators in Russia; it shares first place with FGK.

According to the CEO of Infoline-Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov, in a conservative scenario, the cost of the transaction could be 140 billion rubles, and in an optimistic scenario, it could reach 200-220 billion rubles. Burmistrov noted that now is a very good time to sell the operator, since both the company’s financial indicators and the cost of used cars, on the basis of which the cost of selling the package can be calculated, have recently increased. In particular, according to RAS reporting, at the end of 2022, Freight One’s revenue increased by 19.4%, to 105.8 billion rubles, net profit – by 1.7 times, to 38.4 billion rubles.

In July media reported that Lisin transferred his shares in the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant (NLMK) and Freight One from Cyprus in the UAE, where in May it registered special purpose companies Serenity II Holdings and Nebula II Holdings.