Major Russian rail grain transporter RusTransCom (RTC) announced on 26 April that it had postponed plans for an initial public offering (IPO) in favour of a private equity transaction.
The company had planned to launch an IPO on the London Stock Exchange to raise US$300M in what would have been the first IPO by a Russian firm since 2017, according to Reuters.
However, in a written statement, RTC said that since announcing its IPO plan on 1 April, “RTC’s principal shareholders have received several proposals regarding private equity transactions, which are better aligned with the group’s development strategy”.
RTC owns and operates a total fleet of 68,000 railcars including hoppers, flatcars and vegetable oil tank railcars, according to its website. More than half of its rail cars were for the transportation of grain, including wheat, corn, barley, oil plants and mixed fodder.
In 2018, it was the market leader in rail transportation of grain in Russia and Kazakhstan and of timber and mineral fertilisers in Russia, according to the company.
World Grain said that in 2018, RTC transported 60.7M tonnes of grain and made revenues of 51.5bn of rubles and a net profit of 11.6bn rubles
