European intermodal railcar leasing company Touax Rail has
placed an order with Luxembourg-based International Railway Systems
(IRS) for 6,000 railcars to be delivered between 2009 and 2012.
According to Fabrice Walewski, managing partner of Touax Group,
the company’s fleet of railcars will reach 10,000 by 2009 and will
more than double in size when all deliveries, including options,
are completed in 2012.
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The railcars – comprising 3,600 intermodal railcars for the
transportation of shipping containers, 1,200 railcars for iron and
steel transportation, and 1,200 hopper cars for the movement of
coal transportation – will be leased in Europe, including the UK
market, but excluding Spain and Russia.
In addition, Touax Rail has 2,000 rail cars on order for
delivery in 2008.Touax, based in La Défense, in France, also leases
modular buildings and river barges.
“Most of the railcars to be delivered in 2008 and 2009 are
already committed to lease contracts, ”Walewski told Leasing
Life. “However, Touax Rail always tries to keep some
quantities available for its customers in order to meet their
urgent needs. Orders to be delivered in 2010 and after are options
that will be exercised depending on the market demand.”
Touax Group plans to use leveraged finance structures to fund
the railcars through various methods, including, but not limited
to, stock exchange capital increases (Touax is listed on the NYSE
Euronext, based in Paris), assetbacked financing with its bank
partners and through management programmes with third-party
investors where Touax remains the asset manager of the
railcars.
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By GlobalDataWalewski said Touax Group works with 10 undisclosed banks
worldwide. Touax Group created Touax Rail Finance five years ago in
order to finance most of its railcars, which are kept on its
balance sheet.
Most of the company’s contracts are three-to-five year operating
lease contracts. Touax Rail offers maintenance expenses in the rent
in full-service leases or includes only the costs of major
overhauls in the rent.The company also offers a mixed-lease option,
where the maintenance is at the lessee’s cost. If no maintenance
work is done by the lessor, the lease is considered to be a net
lease.
“Private rail operators normally prefer full-service leases.
Former state-owned rail operators normally prefer net leases,” said
Walewski.
Touax coordinates the maintenance of all the wagons and the work
is subcontracted to repair shops located throughout Europe.
Walewski explained that, with the 30-year average age of the
railcar fleet in continental Europe, demand to replace assets is
strong.
“The liberalisation of the freight rail market on January 1 2007
brought more competition to the market, leading to an improvement
in the quality of the service. Trains are also operated on longer
distances, crossing borders without restrictions, which will
gradually improve the competitiveness of rail transport and
increase the demand,” he said.
Also, through its subsidiary, Gold Container Corp, Touax leases
approximately 450,000 shipping containers to global shipping
companies.
