Globaltrans was established during the early stages of the reform of Russian railway market in the early 2000s. It began life as two private companies, Sevtekhnotrans and New Forwarding Company, engaged in the freight rail transportation business. In a few years, it has grown to become Russia’s leading privately owned freight rail operator. It is the first private freight rail transportation group with operations focusing on Russia to be publicly listed.
Sevtekhnotrans was established in 2000 as a Russian limited liability company by entities controlled by the current beneficial owners of Transportation Investments Holding Limited (TIHL, to learn more on TIHL, please click here) and their associates. Until 2004, Sevtekhnotrans was mainly engaged in freight forwarding and rolling stock leasing services.
New Forwarding Company was established as a Russian Open Joint Stock Company by entities controlled by Envesta Investment Limited (EIL, to learn more on EIL, please click here) in 2003, one of the Company’s principal shareholders. In the same year, it received a freight rail carrier licence and began its principal business of providing freight rail transportation services. As the owner of the ‘‘Novaya Perevozochnaya Kompaniya’’ (New Forwarding Company) brand, New Forwarding Company is also responsible for marketing, sales and other customer-facing business activities of the Group. It is also the main contracting entity for freight rail transportation and other services provided by the Group.
In May 2004, the Company was established in Cyprus by EIL and a company controlled by the beneficial owners of TIHL. In July 2004, the original founding entities of New Forwarding Company transferred their respective shares in New Forwarding Company to the Company. In June 2007, the shares of Sevtekhnotrans were also transferred to the Company.
In March 2008 following a special resolution approved by the shareholders, the Company was converted into a public limited liability company. In May 2008, the GDRs were listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange with a free-float of approximately 30%. The listing and initial public offering (the IPO) consisted of both primary and secondary components and comprised an offering of GDRs by Globaltrans and TIHL and EIL to international institutional investors outside of the United States and the Russian Federation, and to qualified institutional buyers in the United States. The IPO generated approximately USD 224.7 million in gross proceeds for Globaltrans.
In July 2008 the Board of Directors of the Company approved the creation of a wholly owned Ukrainian subsidiary. The subsidiary was registered in June 2008 to provide competitive, customer-focused transportation services, primarily to large companies operating in the steel, iron ore and coking coal sectors, and to minimise empty runs by sourcing cargoes for gondola cars returning from delivering cargoes to Ukrainian destinations.
In December 2008, Globaltrans acquired 61% of AS Spacecom and 65% of AS Spacecom Trans (formely AS Intopex Trans), two Estonian registered rail tank car leasing companies. The Estonian subsidiaries provided the Group with an increased presence in the oil products and oil transportation markets in Russia and Kazakhstan, and an increase in the proportion of leasing revenues in the Group’s total revenue.
In December 2009 the Group successfully completed secondary public offering and acquisition of an effective 50% economic interest and a majority controlling interest in LLC BaltTransServis (BTS) in exchange for ordinary shares of the Company. BTS is one of the leading private Russian railway transportation services operators, specialising in freight rail transportation of oil products and oil for Russian oil majors and other customers.
As a result of the secondary public offering (Offering) and the issue of the consideration shares the total number of outstanding issued ordinary shares in the Company increased from 116,959,064 to 158,135,533 and the Company's free-float increased from 30.5% to 35.31%. Gross proceeds to the Company from the offering amounted to approximately USD 100 million. The net proceeds from the offering received by Globaltrans will be used for the acquisition of new rolling stock and for general corporate purposes.
