MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s third largest bank Gazprombank, an affiliate of the state-run gas giant Gazprom, is planning a roadshow to raise about 43 billion dollars for its high-speed Moscow-Kazan rail line, Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday.
The bank’s top executives were initially to go this week on an Asia tour with stops in Singapore on May 13, Hong Kong on May 14, Shanghai on May 15, Beijing on May 16 and a tentative Taiwan, before the group announced it put off the trip for reasons it didn’t disclose.
A source in the know told the Kommersant the schedule was speculative and could be changed on the go. The paper's source with the Russian Railways company confirmed the reports of Gazprombank’s Asia marathon, saying the idea had been floated “a couple of months ago.”
The rail line project, nicknamed VSM-2, seeks to combine both government and investments funds, with Moscow allocating a hefty 10.6 billion dollars, 4.3 billion coming from Russia's sovereign wealth fund and about 2.9 billion to be raised through infrastructure bonds sales.
Gazprombank also hopes to attract such potential investors as China Investment Corporation, Singapore’s Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, Hong Kong’s SAFE Investment Company and Investment Fund Hong Kong Monetary Authority, among others.
The 770-kilometer Moscow-Kazan railroad was presented to investors in early March 2014. The line is expected to cut travel time from Russia's capital to the biggest city in the Volga republic of Tatarstan from 11.5 to just 3.5 hours.
