The first freight company (PGK) was headed by the son of the former vice-president of JSC Russian Railways Babaev

The First Freight Company (FGC), which recently changed its owner, has a new general director. He became Ruslan Babaev, one of the two sons of the former vice-president of Russian Railways Salman Babaev, whom the market considers the current owners of Freight One. Analysts note that the Babayev family is well known in the railway freight market and with the new owner, one should expect the company to become more active in strategic discussions in the operator industry, create alliances with other market participants and strengthen Freight One’s position in the multimodal container transportation market.

As Kommersant learned, on November 18, the new general director of the First Freight Company took up his duties. This follows from a notice sent by the company to counterparties (“Kommersant has seen the document”). The Board of Directors elected Ruslan Babaev to this post. PGK Kommersant confirmed that Mr. Babaev holds the post of general director of the company.

The former head of Freight One, Sergei Karataev, three sources in the transportation and metallurgical markets told Kommersant, is considered as a likely successor to the post of president of NLMK Grigory Fedorishin, who has headed the metallurgical holding since 2018. As NLMK told Kommersant, “the decision on the candidacy of the group’s new CEO will be made by shareholders in January.” NLMK announced the appointment of an extraordinary meeting of shareholders for January 6 and the replacement of Mr. Fedorishin in accordance with the planned rotation in mid-November.

The main owner of NLMK, Vladimir Lisin, who acquired Freight One in 2011, recently sold the transportation company – as of November 1, Aurora Invest JSC became its new owner (see Kommersant on October 3 and November 2). Kommersant’s interlocutors called the buyer affiliated with the brothers Timur and Ruslan Babayev. In particular, they are co-owners of Vector Rail, which owns the liquefied petroleum gas transportation operator SG-Trans. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed; Kommersant’s sources spoke of 200 billion rubles.

The Babayev family “has proven itself well in the transport industry,” says Pavel Ivankin, president of the National Research Center for Transportation and Infrastructure. According to his observations, Freight One has recently withdrawn from participation in strategic discussions in the industry and reduced its public presence, which was much more visible several years ago, and now there is a possibility that this situation will improve. In addition, he notes, it was clear that Freight One was focusing on working with its anchor client, NLMK, but he adhered to strict competitive positions, and Freight One did not receive significant advantages.

The head of Infoline-Analytics, Mikhail Burmistrov, notes that the Babayevs know the operating market well and the fact that the new owners are closely immersed in the company’s operational activities will have a positive impact on the business, especially from the point of view of the development of new directions. According to him, Freight One has a powerful competitive advantage: the company is a leader in IT among operators and has high operational and financial efficiency.

According to the expert, the new CEO will have to reduce the bureaucratization of the company’s commercial function, which will strengthen the sales team and more effectively attract new clients. He notes that Freight One now needs to strengthen its position in the multimodal container transportation market, where factors of flexibility and customer focus are critical.

Natalya Skorlygina, Evgeny Zainullin