Re: National Rail Corp

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <37D63D87.B405B419@hotkey.net.au> Greg Triplett <triplett@hotkey.net.au> writes:
>From: Greg Triplett <triplett@hotkey.net.au>
>Subject: Re: National Rail Corp
>Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 20:42:15 +1000

>Hi Maurie & others,

>> The sale is still on , delayed up until now by having to get the agreement of all the shareholders,<<

>Please excuse my ignorance. Who are the present shareholders
>? Various governments ?

Yes , the shareholders are the Feds , the NSW Govt and the VIC Govt.
Its a strange arrangement in that they all have equal voting rights but hold 
differant equities in NRC.
All 3 shareholders have to be in agreement before the sale can commence.
There also was some dispute about what actually was for sale also.
The Sth Dynon terminal for example was argued that it actually belonged to
the Vic Govt and was only leased to NRC , therefore wasnt to be included in 
the sale ,not a very practical arrangement.

>>>Toll Rail is also interested.<<

>What are the present rail activities of Toll ?
They currently are one of NRCs competitors on the Melb - Perth corridor.
They also run a fleet of trucks.

>Does anyone have any idea what the market capitalisation of
>NRC would be ?
This is a difficult question to answer.
NRC have a lot of capital in their loco fleet and a lot of rolling stock.
They also have a lot of useful terminals in the major capitals.
On the other hand they own no track at all, have up until now made no profit
and carry a sizeable level of debt.
I suspect that the answer will rely somewhat on whether there is any real rail 
reform in the near future and whether ARTC is allowed to achieve its desired 
goal of being a true one stop shop.
It also depends a bit on to what extent Freightcorp , FV and Westrail enter 
the interstate market , as there really isnt enuf market for all of them and 
the winners will be the ones with the lowest debt to equity ratio.
In this regard Freightcorp and Westrail would be very strong contenders.

cheers
MD