Russian Railways subsidiary Transcontainer and VR Ltd (Finland) have signed an agreement to set up a joint venture to provide container traffic between the two countries, press center of RZD OJSC reports according to RBC. The new company will market container transport services at Europe-Asia routes. The JV is to be registered on parity basis as a joint stock company with a head office to be opened in Helsinki. Working name of JV is JV TransContainer Scandinavia.
According to earlier information, the authorized capital of the JV is to make EUR 150 thou consisting of 300 ordinary shares with nominal value of EUR 500 each. The participants are to pay the authorized capital of JV in equal shares. Executive Director is to be appointed by the Russian side. Transport network of Finland is a large source of cargo flow (including container flow) to Russia as well as a user of export and transit cargo from Russia. In 2005, cargo turnover between the countries totaled $10.7 billion (+3.2% against 2004). Authorized capital of Transcontainer OJSC is RUR 13.9 billion. Today Transcontainer operates the rolling stock of 23 thou platforms for large-capacity containers and 177 thou containers including 48 thou large-capacity containers.