American Investment Fund Becomes Container Terminal Ilyichevsk’s New Shareholder

Siguler Guff & Company, an American private equity investment company that manages assets worth more than USD 10 billion on three continents, has become a new shareholder in Container Terminal Ilyichevsk (CTI), a private company. The Interfax Ukraine news agency reported this, citing a press release by the company.

The new investor indirectly owns 50% of the shares in Container Terminal Ilyichevsk. The management of the New York-based company intends to use its global expertise to develop the production capacity of CTI and increase the container capacity of the Ilyichevsk seaport.

“Despite the difficult economic situation in the country, we plan to continue developing and growing. CTI has already invested USD 56 million in the infrastructure of Ilyichevsk seaport and will continue improving the throughput of the terminal. The new partner’s stake in CTI will help us implement our plans,” CTI’s General Director Andrii Pavliutin is quoted as saying in the statement.

According to the statement, the American investor believes that implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union will inevitably increase Ukraine’s involvement in world trade.

In addition to Siguler Guff & Company, the other shareholders of CTI are German forwarding company SRR Deutschland with a 25% stake Ukrainian citizen Pavliutin with 25%, according to the statement.

The Container Terminal Ilyichevsk, which is a private enterprise, is capable of handling vessels with a capacity of up to 8,000 TEU. The terminal has a quay length of 656 meters, a water depth alongside berth of up to 13.5 meters, a container storage area of with a capacity of 17,100 TEU, and a container processing capacity of 850,000 TEU per year. It handles both ocean-going and feeder vessels. This terminal was formerly part of the Russian group National Container Company (NCC), but NCC was bought in September 2013 by the Global Ports holding. Information on the website of the holding states that it performs operations only in the Baltic and Far East Basins and that it has the option of acquiring 50% of CTI and believes that the Ukrainian market has great prospects in the long-term future.

The Ilyichevsk seaport is one of the two main container ports in Ukraine (the second is the Odessa seaport).