The takeover of North East-based transport group Go-Ahead by a joint venture of two overseas operators has been approved at a general meeting held by the firm.
Go-Ahead's shareholders voted 78.6% in favour of the deal - which will see the consortium of Kinetic TCo Pty Ltd - Australia and New Zealand's largest bus network - and Spanish transport firm Globalvia Inversiones S.A.U pay 1,550 pence per share, valuing the business at £669m. It follows the suitors' raising of a previous bid which valued Go-Ahead at about £647.7m and came despite rivals Kelsian dropping out of the running.
Announcing the move to the London Stock Exchange, Go-Ahead said completion of the deal would be subject to court sanctioning likely to take place in October this year. Kinetic is the largest and fastest growing bus operator in Australia and New Zealand, with close to 4,000 buses and 6,000 employees while Globalvia manages transport infrastructure concessions including highways, metro lines and railways in Spain, the US, Ireland, Portugal, Costa Rica, and Chile and has more than 2,000 employees.
Read more: North East deals of the week: Key acquisitions, contracts and investments
Go-Ahead's group chief executive Christian Schreyer had previously described the first offer made by Kinetic and Globalvia as "compelling" and said it combined an attractive valuation with good prospects for the business. He said: “We have confidence in Go-Ahead’s future as an independent business, but see that being part of a truly global mass transit platform will yield exciting opportunities.
"We welcome the commitment of Kinetic and Globalvia to invest in the decarbonisation and digitalisation of our operations, and to support our strategy, The Next Billion Journeys. As a standalone business within a global platform, we will be better placed than ever to connect communities and to fulfil our purpose of moving our customers towards a smarter and healthier planet.”
Read more on the background to the deal here.
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