Operail sells another batch of wagons

OPERAIL Leasing has sold 807 rental wagons by auction. ATASU Group from Kazakhstan and Skinest Rail from Estonia proved successful in the auction, with for €22.1 million raised in the sales to these companies.

More than 40 companies. took part in the auction. Twenty interested parties submitted their tenders in the different phases of the process.

In the first stage, 522 wagons located in Ukraine were sold to the Ukrainian company Fortior Capital and to the Estonian company Teslar Trans; the total amount of the transactions was €6.51 million.The price of the wagons in Ukraine was influenced by the war, as it is difficult to transport them out of the country.

After a long and tense sales process which involved negotiations with several companies, Operail concluded a sales contract with two subsidiaries of ATASU, one of the largest groups of logistics companies in Kazakhstan, in late December. The companies purchased 410 wagons in total. A sales contract was concluded with the Estonian wagon rental company Skinest Rail, which purchased 397 wagons.

The majority of the wagons sold are covered with rental contracts. All of the lessees are European companies. The wagons are primarily located in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, and the Baltic states. No wagons have been rented to Russia.

The process for selling the remaining rental wagons of AS Operail Leasing is currently in the stage of negotiations with the parties that submitted the best tenders.

“The business was expanded because Russian transit via Estonia shrunk significantly after the events of the Bronze Night and freight transport as an independent business line was no longer feasible. As freight transport is strategically important for the state, we had to find ways to survive from the economic perspective. We sought for alternative sources of income until we would be able to optimise and reform freight transport in Estonia. The media has painted a picture of renting wagons being a ‘Russian business’ for Operail. This is not true, the business was launched for the opposite reason – to reduce the dependence of the transit of goods from Russia,” says Raul Toomsalu, Chairman of the board of AS Operail.

The business model always consisted of renting wagons for use them for freight transport on 1520 mm gauge railroads.