The reorganization of the State Railway Administration of Ukraine (Ukrzaliznytsia) into a state joint-stock company will make it more attractive to investors and increase its credit rating, the head of the chief financial and economic department at Ukrzaliznytsia, Tamara Riabchun, said on the sidelines of the seventh annual conference Fitch Rating in Ukraine on Wednesday.
“Now we’re not very transparent for investors,” Riabchun said at the conference.
She said that the law on the specifics of the creation of the state joint-stock company of railways transport of general use was passed in February 2012.
She said that the joint-stock company would be created via the merger of around 40 separate legal entities, which will allow its share capital to be boosted.
Asked about the possibility of Ukrzaliznytsia’s entering the bond market, Riabchun said that it won’t happen this year.
As reported, according to the law, 100% of the shares in the joint-stock company will belong to the state.
The joint-stock company will be created in line with the state program on the reform of railway transport via the formation of vertically integrated structures in types of operations: cargo shipments, domestic and international passenger transportation, suburban and regional passenger transportation, maintenance and exploitation of infrastructure, provision of locomotive traction services, repair of rolling stock, etc.
In May 2012, Fitch Ratings assigned the State Rail Transport Administration Ukrzaliznytsia long-term foreign and local currency ratings of ‘B-‘, a national long-term rating of ‘BBB+(ukr)’ and a short-term foreign currency rating of ‘B.’
