Financial Services, Good for Business, Latvia, Loan, Railways, Transport

LDz Ritosa Sastava Serviss, a subsidiary of LDz, intends to modernize 14 diesel locomotives by February 2019 to renew its locomotive fleet and reduce costs for repair of locomotives.

Aivars Straksas, Vice-President of LDz, said in a statement for the press that this was the largest project for upgrading of the locomotive fleet undertaken by the company so far. LDz financed modernization of first locomotives from own funds but decided to hold a public tender for a long-term loan to continue upgrading of its locomotive fleet.

Four bidders participated in the negotiated tender, and Swedbank was chosen as the winning bidder because its offer was the most economically advantageous – the loan payments proposed by Swedbank were the lowest.

Latvijas Dzelzcels group comprises the parent company, Latvijas Dzelzcels, and five subsidiaries – LatRailNet, LDz Cargo, LDz Infrastruktura, LDz Ritosa Sastava Serviss, and LDz Apsardze.

LDz posted EUR 5.87 million in preliminary profit before taxes for the first quarter of 2016, and the company’s turnover during the period was EUR 51.6 million.

Swedbank is the biggest bank in Latvia in terms of both assets and the number of customers.