Rail Garant News

According to a composite rating of railway operators in Russia in 2011, prepared by Deloitte & Touche in conjunction with IA InfraNews, Rail Garant Group is one of the five operators of railway rolling stock in Russia.

"Over the last three years the Group has shown dynamic growth in all operating parameters: the wagon fleet under management has increased by more than 5 times and has exceeded 30,000 wagons, and the fleet under ownership and leasing has increased by more than 6 times, and its share in the total Group fleet has reached 77%. Lastly, there has been a 6-fold increase in the amount of loading. Rail Garant is by far the most dynamic player on the railway market," said a representative of the Group's management. "That said, in terms of strategy, we are relying not only on the amount of rolling stock, but also its age, which is an important indicator for assessing the company’s development potential. In Rail Garant the wagon fleet is just 2.3 years old on average, which is the youngest fleet among the largest operators of rolling stock," he adds.

In addition, Rail Garant is a leader in specialized niches: Spetstransgarant is Russia's largest operator of tank containers, Pipe Transport Company is the second largest operator of pipe carriers, and Optima TransAvto is the third largest operator of car carriers. This year the third largest operator of covered wagons in Russia - RailSpetsTrans - a joint venture between Rail Garant and Spetsenergotrans, owned by Ziyad Manasir, was founded.

According to the Group’s development strategy, by the end of 2013 the Group's fleet under management is planned to be increased to 50,000 wagons, and by 2016 to up to 100,000 units. Achieving this outcome will be possible both through organic growth and through M&A transactions. Therefore, we can say with confidence that Rail Garant will be one of the major consolidators of the industry in the coming years.

Currently, the Group continues to implement its project to build a container terminal in Muuga (Estonia), scheduled for launch in 2013, and is expanding its chain of ground container yards in the industrial centers of Russia. The Group is also actively developing its own wagon-repair business.