The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has created in Ukraine a rail car company Crea I UA that manages over 2 thousand cars, EBRD's senior banker Mark Magaletsky told the industry edition CTS on 14 February.
The bank won the cars in a court action against the private railway operator Interlizinvest that has failed to meet service obligations on a loan.
"We have established a subsidiary company up, which is the holder of cars, and will for a while work directly for us. With 2387 car fleet we are among the five largest private owners of car fleets in Ukraine," said Magaletsky.
He stressed, however, that this was a temporary solution. Railcar business is a non-core activity for the bank, so the EBRD will look for opportunities to sell the company.
In 2011, the EBRD signed a 90mn dollar loan agreement with Interlizinvest. After the fall of the regime of Viktor Yanukovych, the company has ceased to service its debt, and the bank won in lawsuit the cars bought with its money.
Interlizinvest Ltd. was associated with Pavel Lebedev, a Sevastopol businessman who in 2012-2014 was the minister of defense of Ukraine.