OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Railways (RZD) will hold an open auction on 18 December 2008 to sell 25% plus one share of Refservice. The auction will be run by KIT Finance Investment Bank, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

The sale is being held as part of the structural reform in the railway sector in line with a decision by RZD’s Board of Directors on 10 September 2008.

RZD has no intention of selling the shares at any price: the minimum bid has been set by an independent assessor at 961 million roubles and exceeds the shares’ face value. The auction is aimed at testing the market’s interest in rail assets.
 
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Refservice is a subsidiary of RZD that specializes in freight shipments using refrigerator cars. It began operations in May 2006.

The company has a charter capital of 3,491.493 billion roubles, made up of 3,491,493 ordinary shares with a face value of 1,000 roubles each. It currently owns more than 10,000 railcars.

Refservice’s operating revenue under Russian Accounting Standards for the first 9 months of 2008 was 4.5 billion roubles, with a net profit figure of 766 million roubles.