Construction, Lithuania, Railways, Transport

The company was previously owned by Estonia's railway services group Skinest Rail and faced obstacles to its participation in tenders called by Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), Lithuania's state-own railway company, due to unfavorable conclusions of the Lithuanian government's special commission assessing deals of strategic importance. But after the owner of Vitras-S changed, the company was deemed as no longer posing threat to national security.

Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai told that the commission did no block the signing of the contract with Vitras-S, which offered the lowest price, for the repay of strategic railways in Kaunas and Siauliai regions.

Having received a positive conclusion, Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai signed a 410,100 euro contract with Vitras-S on railway repairs in the Kaunas region, according to the Central Public Procurement Portal.

It also shows that contracts have been signed with Vitras-S for railway repairs in the Vilnius region (669,400 euros) and the Klaipeda region (317,900 euros).

Naidionov, who took the helm at Vitras-S in June, 2019, when it still belonged to Skinest Rail told he would provide more information after the company issues a press release about the change in ownership.

Possibilities for Vitras-S to bid for LTG's contracts were affected by the government commission's ruling in 2018 that the Skinest Rail Group did not meet Lithuania's national security interests.  

The commission vetting deals by strategic enterprises then said that Skinest Rail's owner Oleg Ossinovski "maintains relations with institutions of foreign states or natural or legal persons from those states which increase the risk or pose a threat to national security".

Documents of the June 19 ordinary general meeting of shareholders show that Naidionov's R-Hold owns 99% of shares in Vitras-S. According to the latter company's 2019 financial statements, Estonia's Skinest Rail held 84% of shares in it at the end of the year, with the remaining 16 percent in the hands of private individuals.   

Vitras-S' annual revenue surged by more than 160% in 2019 from 2018 to 11.625 mln euros, due mostly to its 11.4-mln-euro million contract from LTG for rebuilding a railway section between Mazeikiai and Renge, in Latvia, that had been dismantled back in 2008. 

Vitras-S completed the project in late 2019. 

The company turned a net profit of 1.882 mln euros last year, versus a loss of 956,900 euros in 2018.