Bruce Barnard, Special Correspondent | Dec 14, 2012 11:50AM EST
Summa Friday completed the takeover of Fesco, giving the Russian trading and investment group control of the nation’s largest ocean container carrier.
The Moscow-based group, which is controlled by billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov, also announced it has brought in GHP Group, a wealth management and real estate company, as a minority shareholder.
Summa said the deal, believed to be worth up to $1.4 billion, was financed by equity and $800 million of loans from Goldman Sachs, ING and Raiffeisen Bank.
“Fesco is one of Russia’s best transport and logistics companies, and we’re confident that the acquisition will enable Summa Group to extend its geographical reach,” Summa Group President Alexander Vinokurov said. “Fesco’s business will soon be fully integrated into Summa Group’s transport and logistics business.”
Summa acquired majority control of Fesco in June when it agreed to buy the 56 percent shareholding of Russian businessman Sergei Generalov to add to the 15 percent it had already acquired in the open market.
Summa, which has said it wants to buy 70 percent of Fesco, didn’t say how much it currently owns of the company.
Fesco, with annual revenue of $1 billion, owns the ocean carrier of the same name, as well as a container terminal in the Russian Far Eastern Port of Vladivostok and a 21 percent stake in Transcontainer, the London-listed rail freight unit of state-owned Russian Railways.
Summa generates more than $10 billion a year from oil and gas, telecommunications, construction and engineering and a growing transport portfolio including majority stakes in the Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port in the Black Sea and the Baltic Port of Primorsk.
Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.