26/10/05 (B321-B) Selon une dépêche en Anglais publiée par Allafrica.com, Guelleh aurait déjà pratiquement vendu la concession du train au consortium Comazar / Sheltam. (Info correspondant)

__________________________ Note de l’ARDHD
De quel droit, Guelleh a-t-il vendu l’un des derniers bijoux de l’Etat djiboutien (Vote à Assemblée nationale, pourtant à sa dévotion ?).

Y a-t-il eu un appel d’offres ?

Quelles sont les conditions financières ?

Qui encaissera l’argent. Une soulte est-elle prévue pour rétribuer certains hauts personnages de l’état ?

Guelleh ou ses proches vont-ils prendre officiellement ou en sous-main une participation dans le groupe ?

Voilà bien des questions qui resteront certainement sans réponse jusqu’au départ de Guelleh, car la transparence financière n’est certainement pas sa première qualité ..
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Railway Concession Winners Eye Other Regional Business

The East African (Nairobi)
NEWS
October 25, 2005
Posted to the web October 25, 2005

By Peter Munaita
Nairobi

The South African railway operator that has won the 25-year management contract for the Kenya-Uganda line has set its sights on emerging as the leading regional player in railway operations.

Sheltam, the lead partner in Rift Valley Railways Consortium, is 47 per cent owned by Comazar, which already has a presence in Uganda, where it runs the Kampala Inland Port. The company also has dealings with the Tanzania Railway Corporation and runs the Ethiopia- Djibouti rail concession.

Details of its regional reach will be unveiled after the railway concession takes off in March 2006.

Presently, the South African group is vying for the Tanzania rail concession through the Great Lakes Railways Company, a consortium comprising Comazar, Sheltam, Bollore, Caspian and Prime Fuels.

Competition in Tanzania will, however, be stiff, especially from Railway India Technical and Economic Services (Rites).

Rites constructed the Tanzania rail network while Sheltam boasts of experience in the country through a subsidiary, TARC, which has since ceased operation.

A consortium formed by Comazar and Sheltam has been technically qualified for the Ethiopia/Djibouti contract, for which financial bids were submitted last month. Outside East Africa, Sheltam is the only qualified bidder for the CFCO concession in the Democratic Republic of Congo, whose traffic is about 750,000 tonnes.

It will be assisted by Comazar, which previously ran Sizarail in the country. Comazar is also negotiating with developers and the government for the construction of a mining line in Senegal that will handle 12 million tonnes through a joint venture with Kumba.

Another mining line for Algeria, with a capacity of 7 million tonnes is on hold although the company has signed a memorandum of understanding. Comazar is already present in Cameroon (Camrail), Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast (Sitarail), Madagascar (Madarail), Mozambique and Zambia.

The Rift Valley Consortium comprises five partners – Sheltam Rail (61 per cent), Comazar (10 per cent), Primefuels (15 per cent), Mirambo Holdings and CDIO Institute for Africa Development Trust (4 per cent).

The Consortium’s winning proposal included an offer to pay initial fees of $3 million for Kenya and $2 million for Uganda, annual concession fees of 11.1 per cent of their gross revenues in each country and $1 million annually for the passenger services concession in Kenya.

In contrast, Rites offered to pay 6.1 per cent of their gross revenues but sought a subsidy of $6 million from the governments. Rift Valley Railways is to invest $280 million in rehabilitating existing assets and a further $42 million investment in new rolling stock and operating equipment over the term of the concession.

However, only $80 million is to be injected in the first five years, probably because technical audits concluded that the Kenyan railway network is in a good condition, with the main problem being the need to replace rails, particularly on curves.

The concession covers the main line from Mombasa to the Uganda border at Malaba as well as the Uganda line from Malaba to Kampala. The line from Nakuru in Kenya to Kisumu on Lake Victoria has also been included as well as a number of commuter services in and around Nairobi and the main line passenger service from Mombasa to Nairobi.

Incorporated six years ago, Sheltam is involved in management services, locomotive maintenance, track maintenance, mining and railway operations. The Comazar Group brings in technical expertise in private rail management, having been active in 15 African countries.

Comazar was founded by Eric Pteiffer and Patrick Claes together with Transnet (Spoornet) and Transurb Consult (a subsidiary of the Belgian Railways) in 1995. It is a subsidiary of Transnet, which also owns Spoornet from South Africa.

(…)

Additional reporting by Kimathi Njoka