The Dutch state railway is to pull out of the UK with a management buyout of its subsidiary Abellio, which runs four rail lines and a number of London bus routes.
After 20 years in this country, Abellio’s parent company, the Netherlands state-run Nederlandse Spoorwegen, is to sell off the firm to its UK management. Over that time, Abellio has run East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Merseyrail and West Midlands Railway and currently employs 15,000 staff. The business will be operated by a new firm, to be known as Transport UK Group Limited.
The deal for the proposed buyout remains subject to formal approval from partners including the Department for Transport, Transport for London and Merseytravel, as well as regulatory consent from the Office for Rail and Road.
Abellio UK’s chief executive, Dominic Booth, is understood to be leading the buyout and will help fund the deal using his own money.
He said: “I’ve been a railwayman all my life. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to return key public transport services back into UK ownership at a time when some of our competitors look destined for overseas ownership.
“We expect the business to transfer by the end of the year, following which we will focus all our energies and expertise on continuing to deliver the best possible services for our passengers, investing in our train and bus routes, and helping to develop a future-ready, low-emission UK transport network.”
Abellio’s parent company said it decided to withdraw from the UK market “to focus on domestic service provision within, and international railway services to and from, the Netherlands”.
Booth added: “This deal will put us in a strong position to continue the smooth operating of our current routes as well as giving us the capability to grow the business and bid for new franchises in the future.”
The move to bring an operator back into British ownership would be uncommon at a time when foreign investment is flowing into the market. A German infrastructure fund recently acquired Stagecoach in a £600m deal, while Go-Ahead Group is reportedly nearing a £660m deal with overseas operators backed by Canadian pension money.
First Group also rejected a £1.2bn takeover approach from a US private equity firm.
Bert Groenewegen, the acting CEO of Nederlandse Spoorwegen, said: “NS is proud to support this natural next step for Abellio UK as it transitions with our blessing into a new management-owned passenger transport group.”
This article was amended on 25 August 2023. An earlier version said that Abellio had run East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Merseyrail and West Midlands Railway for 20 years. In fact, it was Abellio’s parent company, the Netherlands state-run Nederlandse Spoorwegen, that had been in the UK for 20 years. Over that time, Abellio has run those franchises, on its own or as part of a consortium, for a varying number of years.
