SA rail operator wins Kenya – Uganda concession

ALAN PEAT AN SA railway operator – a large part of which is owned by Spoornet parent Transnet - has just won a 25-year management contract for the Kenya-Uganda line, reports the Nairobi newspaper The East African. The Rift Valley Consortium (RVC) comprises five partners - Sheltam Rail, Comazar, Prime Fuels, Mirambo Holdings and the CDIO Institute for Africa Development Trust. The Transnet involvement is through Sheltam and Comazar – which together hold 71% of RVC – with 47% of Sheltam owned by Comazar, a Transnet subsidiary. Transnet also has close business links with Protekon, the engineering group that conducted the technical due diligence study on the Kenya-Uganda network on behalf of the RVC – and will support the concession on a commercial basis through rehabilitation and maintenance of the railway infrastructure. RVC is to invest about R1.9-billion in rehabilitating existing assets and a further R281.4-m in new rolling stock and operating equipment over the 25-year term of the concession.