MSC eyes stake in Russian cargo major Transcontainer

Interesting news coming out of Russia suggests that the famously guarded MSC is looking to buy into Russian intermodal operator Transcontainer, as the Kremlin prepares to sell Russian Railways’ stake in the box operation. Russian business newspaper Kommersant claims that steel tycoon Vladimir Lisin, whose business interests include a stake in a St Petersburg box terminal in which MSC is its co-shareholder. MSC’s possible involvement is allegedly being used as a sweetener to help convince Kremlin officials to push the deal forward. A 50% stake in Transcontainer was estimated to be worth $300m.