About Railroad Financial Corporation
Railroad Financial Corporation is a Chicago-based financial advisor that limits its practice to rail and rail equipment finance. Railroad Financial was organized in 1989 and has been involved in the financing of more than US$18 Billion in rail equipment transactions in North America, Europe and Australasia.
While Railroad Financial has been involved in virtually every type of railroad rolling stock, its principals have particular expertise in locomotive finance as well as in financing equipment for the power generation and chemical industries. In addition to an active practice in North America, Railroad Financial opened rail finance markets in the United Kingdom and New Zealand to modern techniques of equipment finance.
While Railroad Financial traditionally works for the end-user of the financing or equipment management RFC provides, it has also advised financial institutions seeking to enter or exit particular markets in which RFC practices.
Business Lines
Railroad Financial Corporation provides its customers with solutions to a wide variety of railroad financial and rail equipment challenges. These services include:
- Rail Equipment Finance. RFC manages the acquisition of debt and lease (single investor or leveraged) financing for a variety of railroads and operating lessors of rail equipment around the world. Depending on the creditworthiness of the client, this financing can be either a private placement or an “auction” of the funding opportunity among up to 100 funding sources.
- Financing Railroad Operating Properties. RFC can arrange equity and debt financing for existing railroad clients and for investment groups seeking additional financing for new rail properties.
- Railcar & Locomotive Fleet Acquisition & Sale. RFC regularly represents clients acquiring or disposing of railcar and locomotive fleets.
- Lease Brokerage. RFC maintains an active practice in pairing end-users of railcars and locomotives with owners and lessors seeking leases. RFC works with end-users of railcars and locomotives to reposition renegotiate or restructure existing leases. Equipment involved may be in long or short-term lease obligations.
- Mergers & Acquisitions. RFC specializes in developing tailored solutions to a variety of railroad and railroad equipment financial challenges. These assignments have included 1) Merging the two largest locomotive lease fleets in North America; 2) Organizing a successful bidding group to acquire a large operating lease fleet of railcars; 3) Disposing of railcar and repair facility assets; 4) Structuring a single sale and related financing for almost US$500 million in new rolling stock for an equipment supplier. 5) Organizing a de novo operating leasing company including staffing.
- Transaction Restructuring. RFC specializes in evaluating active leases with an eye to restructuring them to improve economics and terms.
The Rail Equipment Finance Conferences have been run by RFC's President Tony Kruglinski for 23 years, initially as a marketing tool for Irving Trust Company's Surface Transportation Division which Tony created and led and subsequently as an affiliate of Railroad Financial Corporation when Tony organized it in 1989.
“While we are immensely proud of our Rail Equipment Finance Conferences and the many industry professionals on our faculty that help us present them, Railroad Financial Corporation is NOT a professional conference company. The subjects included in REF are subjects with which we deal on a daily basis in our professional practice. Our speakers include many of our clients and each year we learn many things as REF unfolds as the yearly industry briefing it has become.”
Tony KruglinskiPresident, Railroad Financial Corporation
Chairman, Rail Equipment Finance 2009