The government is close to agreeing the sale of a 25% stake controlled by Russian Railways sleepers manufacturer – the company “Beteltrans” (BETH). Following the transaction, control will pass to the structures of the son of the Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika, the newspaper “Kommersant”.
Company “M-industry”, which co-owner is Igor Chaika, already controls almost half of the shares “Beteltrans”. After the deal with a 25 percent stake, which is now owned by RZD, “MT industry” to establish full control over the manufacturer of the sleepers.
The draft government regulation on the sale of the shares has been agreed, the Ministry of economy with the Ministry of transport and the Federal property management Agency, which, according to the newspaper, the letter said the acting head of the Economic Evgeny Elin.
Asking permission to sell this package, “M-industry” addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich last fall, in a letter to his name, it was reported that between RR and BETH there is a series of contracts for the purchase of sleepers up to 2019 for a total amount of 150 billion rubles.
However, last year the monopoly has not fulfilled its obligations in connection with it shall be subject to a penalty amount of up to half a billion rubles. “M-industry” has offered to buy the shares in exchange for the waiver of penalty and additional investment on their part.
From the letter it also follows that the Board of Directors of JSC “RZD” tentatively agreed on a deal back in November on the terms of the waiver of liquidated damages in the amount of 400 million rubles per year and guarantee the preservation of BETH in production volumes at the level of 10.5 million sleepers per year and the current formula prices for JSC “Russian Railways” till 2020.
