One of Britain’s biggest transport companies, the Go-Ahead Group, has accepted a £650m takeover bid from a consortium of the Australian bus operator Kinetic and the infrastructure specialists Globalvia.
Go-Ahead, a leading provider of UK bus services and the operator of the UK’s biggest commuter rail network, Govia Thameslink Railway, said its board unanimously recommended the offer to shareholders, after receiving two approaches from buyers.
It is the latest British transport company to become a takeover target, along with Stagecoach and FirstGroup.
Go-Ahead said the proposal was a “compelling offer”, a cash bid that values the group at 24% more than Friday’s closing price, before the approach was public.
A deal would be expected to be completed in October, should shareholders accept the terms. The leadership team would remain in place and the group would stay headquartered in Newcastle and London.
Christian Schreyer, the chief executive of Go-Ahead, said: “This is a compelling offer which combines an attractive valuation for shareholders with bright prospects for Go-Ahead’s operations and colleagues around the world.
“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.”
Michael Sewards, a co-CEO of Kinetic, said his firm, as Australia and New Zealand’s largest and fastest growing operators of buses, “will not only provide the necessary long-term capital but the expertise to facilitate the rapid transition of Go-Ahead’s bus fleet from diesel to zero emission technology”.
Shares in Go-Ahead jumped 19% on Monday, taking its value to its highest level since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, after Go-Ahead announced it had received two separate unsolicited offers, from another Australian transport provider, Kelsian Group, as well as the bid from Kinetic and Globalvia.
Kinetic, which runs buses in Melbourne, and its bid partner, Globalvia Inversiones, are largely owned by the Canadian pension fund OP Trusts.
Go-Ahead also has contracts to run rail and bus services in Ireland, Singapore, Norway and Germany.
The news comes after a turbulent year for Go-Ahead in which it was embroiled in an accounting scandal, with the discovery that it had wrongfully kept more than £50m from the government over the course of its Southeastern rail franchise.
It was stripped of the contract, and trading in Go-Ahead shares on the London Stock Exchange was suspended in January after it failed to file accounts pending a fresh audit. However, it has since won a further three-year contract to run Thameslink, Gatwick Express, Southern and Great Northern services.
Rival UK transport operators have also been targeted for takeovers, with FirstGroup last week rejecting a bid from I Squared Capital, and Stagecoach accepting an offer from DWS Infrastructure in March, having earlier looked set to merge with National Express.
The value of transport firms sank when coronavirus hit in March 2020 and the government advised the public to avoid all unnecessary journeys. Go-Ahead’s share price dropped by about 70% in a month at the start of the pandemic, as the UK rail franchising system was scrapped.
Passenger numbers have since recovered only to about 80% of 2019 levels on buses and trains. Stable, if lower, profit margins are, however, guaranteed under new UK rail contracts, leading to renewed investor interest.
Operating companies have been told to find cost savings but their revenues will not be affected by what is likely to be a summer of strikes. Widespread industrial action is due to start next week.
