Moves to reassure staff amid Arriva takeover talk

Mar 19 2010 by John Hill, The Journal

Gert Zonneveld of Panmure Gordon said an offer as high as 800 pence a share is possible depending on how “aggressively” the company acts in negotiations.

He said: “My understanding of the SNCF bid is that it was phrased in such a way that Keolis would be brought into the Arriva group and SNCF would get a share in Arriva. Those discussions terminated fairly quickly.

“This is different because Arriva is being approached by a company which may be prepared to make a bid. They’re having a chat to see if they can come up with a reasonable price that would provide value for shareholders.

“From Deutsche Bahn’s point of view, it’s probably thinking that in time it will be looking to become a publicly listed company. If it wants to position itself as a truly pan-European provider of transport services then the acquisition of Arriva would suit it very well. I don’t think Arriva employees should be concerned. There doesn’t seem to be an enormous overlap between the two companies.”

Wearside’s Arriva runs the CrossCountry and Arriva Trains Wales rail franchises in the UK, as well as bus services in 11 countries in Europe. It confirmed this week that it had received an “unsolicited approach from a third party” but did not name the company as per stock market regulations.

Deutsche Bahn, which was founded in 1994 as a successor to the German state railway, has around 240,000 employees – of which around three-quarters are based in Germany – and operates in 150 countries.

Arriva, which employs around 44,000 people, operates in 12 European countries. In the UK it runs two rail franchises including CrossCountry.