In total, agreements were signed for selling 552 wagons. The total amount of the transactions is 6.51 million euros.
The opportunity to participate in the auction of the assets of Operail Leasing AS, a subsidiary of Operail, was introduced to more than 40 companies.
“Considerable operators on the 1,520 mm railway who could have an interest and ability to purchase knew about the competition and were able to participate,” said Merle Kurvits, member of the management board of Operail and Managing Director of Operail Leasing.
“After analyzing the offers, we decided that it was more reasonable to sell the wagons in two stages: the wagons in Ukraine and the rest of the wagons separately,” Kurvits said. Wagons in Ukraine are different from other wagons because they cannot be brought out of the country. “Most wagons are untouched by war, are in working condition, and are earning rental income on the Ukrainian territory, but railway connections with neighboring countries are poor. Given the war in Ukraine, these are good sales transactions for Operail,” Kurvits said.
In addition to the wagons located in Ukraine, the process of selling the remaining 2,000 wagons of the wagon rental business is in the final stages – negotiation of contracts of purchase and sale with the best tenderers. Most of the wagons are covered by rental agreements. All tenants, without exception, are European companies. The wagons are mainly located in Estonia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. No wagons have been rented to Russia.
The rental of wagons has been the most profitable business area of Operail for the past six years, with 99% of profits coming from it.
