Atlant (railway operator)

History

2024: Demeter-Holding acquires Atlant

On November 8, 2024, the third largest railway freight operator Demetra-Holding completed the acquisition of a 100% stake in the St. Petersburg company Atlant. As a result, about 6 thousand cars, mainly innovative heavy-duty gondola cars, came under the management of the holding.

According to Kommersant, before the transaction, the owners of Atlanta were the general director of the company Yevgeny Yastrebov and the former head of Transoil Andrei Gomon. The fleet of the acquired operator includes 5.7 thousand innovative gondola cars and tanks for transporting vegetable oils.

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Freepik

The demand for gondola cars with an axial load of 25 tons remains consistently high, and the purchase of an existing fleet is the best option amid rising prices for new cars in 2023-2024, said Alexander Polikarpov, managing partner of Rollingstock Agency.

According to analysts at the Institute for Problems of Natural Monopolies, the profitability of the operator's business on coal export transportation in September 2024 amounted to ₽3,93 thousand per day for an innovative gondola car and ₽3,05 thousand for a typical one, excluding VAT.

Demetra-Holding consolidated significant export logistics assets, including stakes in the Novorossiysk Bakery Plant, the United Grain Company and the largest grain hopper operator Rusagrotrans.

Taking into account the acquisition of Atlanta and the previously merged Jefrit company with a fleet of 1.8 thousand cars, the total number of rolling stock of the group reached 98.3 thousand units, which is almost equal to the indicators of the First Freight Company - 98.6 thousand cars.

According to IPEM experts, in the context of a decrease in the profitability of the operator business and an increase in operating costs, further withdrawal from the market of small operator companies is expected. The total fleet of freight cars in Russia as of September 1, 2024 amounted to 1.36 million units.^[1]

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