Ukraine: The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office announced the opening of criminal proceedings against officials of one of the country’s largest freight and passenger rolling stock producers, the Kryukov Railway Car Building Works (KRCBW).
The report notes that KRCBW’s management is accused for taking actions of illegal company’s funds abstraction. In particular, there is an accusation of purchasing components in Russia for the production of railcars “at outpriced level in the presence of Ukrainian analogues at a lower cost”. Also, the emphasis is on the fact that 25% of the enterprise belongs to a Russian citizen: according to Interfax-Ukraine, as of September 30, 2021, 25% of KRCBW shares belonged to the Austrian OW Capital Management GmbH, controlled by businessman Stanislav Gamzalov. Searches were carried out on the territory of the plant, corporate rights were arrested, and their transfer to the asset recovery agency ARMA is being worked out.
KRCBW does not admit the accusations, but treats the ongoing checks “with understanding”, writes Railway.supply. The company clarifies that Stanislav Gamzalov acquired the shares of the plant in 2012, but “did not and does not have an impact on the operation of the company”. KRCBW adds that it is now the only large machine-building enterprise in the Poltava region that continues to work.
Earlier, in February 2021, Vladimir Prikhodko, president and co-owner of KRCBW, said that Russian components are much cheaper than Ukrainian ones, while the latter are “not enough for the market”. In particular, the company purchased wheels from EVRAZ, and not from the only Ukrainian manufacturer, Interpipe. “Today, Ukraine does not produce anything at all to assembly the rolling stock by many items. Either you will assemble the car by purchasing a complete set from a foreign company, or you will not assemble it”, Prikhodko pointed out in a commentary to LIGA.net.
Also, KRCBW for several years has consistently criticized the technical policy of the national railway company Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ) in terms of allowing freight cars operation with a significant service life passed (in 2021, only 2 thsd freight cars were produced in the country – this is the minimum since 2015). Also, the management of the enterprise opposed the desire of the Ukrainian state authorities to order locomotives and multiple units from foreign manufacturers without ensuring a significant level of its localization: in particular, it was planned to supply 130 Alstom electric locomotives with a localization level of up to 35%. In the recent interview to Forbes, the Chairman of UZ Board Oleksandr Kamyshin stated that the national railway company is going to pretend to take control of KRCBW’s share if it will be transferred to ARMA. It will assist KRCBW in receiving of new orders from UZ, he said.
