Kura- you are forgetting the geopolitical dimension here.
Plus, WB is now likely to be interested in engaging financially given that di**head purfett is no longer in the scene...

@surealligator, I do not know where whether u know ur math urself b4 u talk abt other's sense of valuation... ur figures r fictitious or is it deliberate?

@All,
Can someone explain to me why Centum is fixing the price? Would it not have made more sense to sell to the higher bidder between sheltam and transcentury, with the USD4.5 as reserve price? Maybe one of them would have offered more in a bid to gain more say!

Just a moot point now; did centum expect investing in railway transport to return a profit so quickly and that such venture would not be so capital intensive as to eat into their cash reserves? Did sb say speculation somewhere...... still a wee uncomfortable..

You fix a price because you know what your selling isnt worth even half that.

@edwing - Thank you very much. Real money = Real Profits. But Centum needs to invest the money much more prudently than they did with counters like KQ.

Slykat, if Kula Raha does not make sense then i do not know the meaning of the word. But for simplist's sake take a walk towards Nyayo staduim at the bridge take a look down on your left and tell me if there is anything worth buying down there except for the land.

It is good centum exited... they were ill-suited to the venture ab initio, n shud have seen it as a marriage rather than a fling. Same fate awaits transcentury.

I may not make sense to many, but where I come from, you can only say you made a profit AFTER you sell your goods and GET PAID. Not when you advertise you have something to sell.

Anyways, my issue is not with Centum (which frankly is run like a duka), but with RVR. Do you all sincerely beleive that when there will be a cash call to start construction of a new railway, that these mickey-mouse sharehodlers will have the ability to raise funds? Just read http://www.railway-technical.com/finance.shtml and tell me if you think it will be possible for RVR to raise a minimum of US$ 1.25B (thats at $2.5M per km from Nairobi to Mombasa straight line 500 kms).

Kishindo, exactly. And here is my observation. Even if RVR ever manages to raise money to build this railway, it will never break-even. Ever.

Railways are strategic assets for a country, not investments for private companies to reap profits. We are only counting laying tracks, leave alone buying locomotives, bogeys, etc. Add to this daily running costs.

You cannot compare metro and suburban lines to carrying containers from Mombasa to Malaba. Metro lines turn-over hundreds of thousands of passengers several times a day, in big big cities. RVR may transport one load of containers every few days.

It wont work. This railway should have been upgraded years ago, when costs were manageable. It is no longer a viable project, and I dont see RVR ever competing with other forms of transport (unless some knight in shining armour comes and spends BILLIONS of dollars with no regard for return).

@kularaha - I disagree... A privately run railway can work a-ok as long as governments protect their assets & rights of way...

RVR needs police/GoK protection from the kibera hooligans, etc BUT that is a function of GoK though we have seen massive failures...

@wote - Please distinguish between COMMERCIAL operations & those used for so-called public interest...

Now to answer your question: BNSF in USA... now owned (or to be owned) by Warren Buffett... Please note the USA respects the rule of law... well until the lefts take over completely...