TALLINN - Baltic Rail Services, the majority owner of Eesti Raudtee (Estonian Railway), has repeated its wish to have the rail company listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange by the middle of next year, though the government, a minority stakeholder, said the company must first meet all its investment obligations.
"According to the plans, Eesti Raudtee should be listed by the next midsummer, and it would become the third largest issuer on the Tallinn Stock Exchange," Juri Kao, a member of the company's council, told the business daily Aripaev.
Kao added that an agreement still had to be reached with the state, which holds minority shares in the rail company after privatization. "Negotiations with the state are under way," he said.
However, Economy Minister Andrus Ansip said he was against Estonian Railway going public. "From the state's point of view, I consider it more sensible to communicate with concrete partners instead of communicating with shareholders on the stock exchange," the minister said. "Under the privatization agreement, the investors have a big investment obligation, and the state has to be confident that this obligation will not be diluted."
BRS holds a 66 percent stake in Estonian Railway, and the government the remaining 34 percent.
Earlier this month an Economy Ministry official said that the state was not prepared to reduce its holding in the strategic company, particularly in connection with a possible listing. Public relations officer Anu Hallik-Jurgenstein said that the state had no intention of reducing or listing its holding.
"It will only be possible to list the holding that belongs to the other shareholders," Hallik-Jurgenstein said.
Meanwhile, the national railway inspectorate issued Estonian Railway a building license to lengthen tracks around the Narva train station even though the City Council had said it wanted to hold a referendum on the question.
Kaido Simmermann, infrastructure director at Estonian Railway, said the firm hads gone ahead with extending the tracks because the old one, along with the switches, were worn out and that reducing speeds to a minimum significantly reduced the station's capacity.
"Russia's October Railway has repeatedly confirmed it plans to start using trains of a hundred cars soon, and Estonia has to get ready to receive them," he said. In addition, the company plans to replace the station's safety system with a new digital one. The company is investing almost 200 million kroons (12.78 million euros) in renovation.
But last month Narva authorities announced plans to hold a referendum to find out whether city residents would support the reconstruction project. The head of the City Council, Mikhail Stalnukhin, had proposed to hold the popular vote in mid-November.
Freight turnover of Estonian Railway rose 2.6 percent over the first nine months of the year to 32.24 million kroons. Some 22.8 million tons of crude and oil products were handled during the period, or nearly 1 million tons more year-on-year.
