Paul Gunton recalls his own early encounters with Transas in its Russian homeland
This week’s big news is that Wärtsilä is acquiring Transas. It is the latest takeover for the Finnish company, following L3 in 2015, Eniram in 2016 and Guidance Marine in 2017. ‘New year; new Wärtsilä purchase’ seems to be a reliable rule of thumb.
But Transas is different – for me, anyway. It was founded in 1990 in Leningrad – the city became St Petersburg only in September 1991 – and I visited its head office in 1994 (24 April, since you ask). I still have the business cards of its then managing director, Evgeny Komrakov, and director Viktor Godounov. They were two of the company’s four founders and some sources suggest they are still involved today, although they have not been for many years, Transas' chief executive Frank Coles has reminded me.
By then Mr Godounov’s card listed the St Petersburg address as a branch office, with its headquarters in Southampton, in the UK. It opened that office in 1991 and it proved to be a smart move as its Russian homeland emerged from the Soviet empire. It gave it corporate stability in a location where many customers were comfortable doing business. For one thing, the phones worked better in Southampton; Mr Komrakov and Mr Godounov both included UK mobile numbers alongside local numbers in their Russian contact details.
Russian telecoms was a common problem at that time: phoning home took considerable planning and many companies in northwest Russia – certainly in Murmansk and probably elsewhere in the border region – had connections into the Finnish or Norwegian telephone networks.
That 1994 visit may not have been my first to Transas’ offices, because I first visited Leningrad in early 1991, again later that year just as the Soviet Union collapsed and the city’s name changed and then each year until 1995.
I remember first visiting Transas’ offices down a dark corridor in an unremarkable building. Once through its door, however, everything was bright, modern and busy. It was like walking into a different universe and it was obvious that Transas and its young founders were destined for great things on the international stage.
St Petersburg itself was a centre of business revolution in those days. The city’s Baltic Shipping Company was the first, in 1991, to paint out the hammer and sickle on its ships and replace it with the colours of the Russian flag. It was said to be the first company in Russia – of any type – to prepare its accounts to Western standards.
Yet if you look at the Transas website today and call up its history page you will learn nothing of those exciting times in that vibrant and optimistic city. It mentions many countries and a host of cities that have had a part in its development, but on Russia, Leningrad and St Petersburg it is silent. That is a pity.
Transas and I have been on parallel journeys over the intervening years and now, after 28 years of independence, it is being swallowed up by voracious Wärtsilä.
Who will be next? In January, Wärtsilä confirmed it might be interested in Rolls-Royce’s marine business, much of which is on the market. “If we see any interesting player in the market, who would fit well to our strategy ... we would definitely look at it,” Reuters reported its chief executive, Jaakko Eskola, as saying. Ironically, just four years earlier – to the month – Rolls-Royce had been considering making a bid for Wärtsilä.
So watch that space. What did I say at the start of this journey through the years? ‘New year; new Wärtsilä purchase’. Mark it in your Outlook calendar now.
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