Angel Trains sold to consortium

Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has sold the Angel Trains rolling stock leasing company to a consortium of global infrastructure investment funds led by Babcock & Brown, Australia.  The Consortium comprises the Babcock & Brown European Infrastructure Fund, AMP Capital Investors, Deutsche Bank AG and pension funds advised by Access Capital Advisers. The £3.6 billion deal is expected to be completed by the end of 2008, subject to regulatory approval.

Having been set up in 1994 as a result of the privatisation of British Rail, Angel Trains is the largest rolling stock leasing company in the UK, with a total fleet of more than 5,000 passenger trains and freight locomotives. GRS Holding Company, a consortium of Prideaux & Associates, Babcock & Brown, and Nomura International acquired Angel Trains in 1995 for £627.5 million, and then sold it to RBS in 1997 for £395 million.

(Source: Angel Trains )

Czechs to upgrade Albanian railways

The Albanian transport minister, Sokol Olldashi, confirmed his country’s interest in having the Czech Inekon Group in charge of repairing the railways in Albania and modernising their safety system. The future contract might be worth between €600 million and €700 million, according to Czech Business Week.

The Inekon Group is a private company established in 1990, which specialises in rail vehicles and railway tracks, chemical products, and export of investment units.

(Sources: Czech Business Weekly ; Inekon )

SNCF to expand abroad

The French state-owned railway company Societé Naţionale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF), is considering buying other European freight railway companies. Unofficial sources quoted by The Financial Times said that SNCF might be interested in the privatisation of CFR Marfă, the Romanian railway transport company. SNCF reported €23.7 billion sales and €657 million net profit in 2007.

SNCF is also looking to enter the Italian cargo market, by seeking to acquire 49 per cent of the shares in Ferrovie Nord Cargo, the freight division of the Italian railway company Ferrovie Nord Milano (FNM Ltd.). FNM is the largest state-owned Italian company after Trenitalia. It operates 300 km of rail and provides regional transport services in northern Italy.

(Sources: The Financial Times ; SNCF )

DR Congo to stabilise railways

Belgian concessionaire Vecturis won a two-year contract to manage and “stabilise” the operations of the national railway company in DR Congo - Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo (SNCC), according to Railway Gazette International. Onatra, the national transport agency which operates the Kinshasa - Matadi line and ferry services on the Congo and Kasai rivers, will benefit from technical support provided by the Franco-Spanish group Progosa.
Vecturis currently holds two railway concessions in Africa. Madarail manages the 750 km northern railway network in Madagascar, whilst TransRail operates the 1,228 km railway line between the Malian capital Bamako and the port of Dakar in Senegal.

(Source: Railway Gazette International )

Portugal calls bids for high speed lines

The Portuguese government has invited public tenders for the first 167 km section of the high speed railway between Lisbon and Madrid. Brisa - Auto Estradas de Portugal, SA, Sacyr Vallehermoso SA's Portuguese unit Somague and Mota Engil SGPS, SA have reportedly shown interest in the bid. International Railway Journal revealed that the whole 206 km Portuguese section of the line will be built and operated as a 40-year public-private partnership (PPP) concession. It will open in 2013 to allow trains running at speeds of up to 350 km/h.  

The €9.5 billion project to build a high-speed rail network in Portugal, expected to be completed in 10 years, is aimed to re-launch the rail transport and to establish connections to the Trans-European Transport Network.

(Sources: International Railway Journal )

Ircon to develop Malaysian infrastructure

Ircon International Ltd (IRCON) has been awarded a US$1 billion deal to design, construct, and maintain the Seremban-Gemas electrified double-track rail in Malaysia. The 108 km railway project is expected to be implemented within two years. The Times of India cited Malaysia's transport minister Ong Tee Keat as expressing his confidence that the project would be a catalyst for greater economic development and national progress.

The state-owned company IRCON is a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, and has completed other rail projects in Malaysia.

(Source: The Times of India )

RZD interested in DB

Russian Railways (RZD) would like to buy a stake in German rail operator Deutsche Bahn AG (DB), but it will be the Russian government who will make the final, politically motivated, decision. "We are now carrying out an analysis, and will report on the results to the government," said Vladimir Yakunin, the president of RZD, quoted by RIA Novosti.

Last month, the Bundestag approved the partial privatisation of the state-owned DB by selling 24.9 per cent of its business to private investors. The sale is expected to raise between US$8 billion and US$12 billion.

RZD and DB already have a joint venture in transportation and logistics, as part of their strategy to build an integrated system aimed at attracting additional freight along the routes linking Western Europe, Russia, and China. RZD is the world's second largest railway with annual revenues of around US$40 billion, whilst DB has annual revenues of around US$47 billion and employs more than 220,000 staff.

(Source: RIA Novosti )

High speed in Hungary

Hungary has plans to build two high speed rail lines linking Budapest with France (via Slovenia and Croatia) and Austria (via Slovakia). The CEO of Hungary's state railway MAV, Istvan Heinczinger, has told Vilaggazdasag newspaper, cited by Railway Technology, that the overall costs of the lines and related infrastructure could reach €2 billion, but his country would seek to partly cover from EU funds during its 2013-2020 budgetary period.

(Source: Railway Technology )

Japanese loans for African infrastructure

Japan will provide US$4 billion of Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans for infrastructure improvements in Africa over the next five years. Speaking at the opening session of the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) that took place in May 2008 at Yokohama, the Prime Minister of Japan Yasuo Fukuda said that his country intends to increase its cooperation with the donors of the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA).

In addition, Japan will be inaugurating within the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) an investment facility to directly finance businesses in African countries.

(Source: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan )

World Bank programme for Tanzania

The World Bank has approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US$190 million for the Second Central Transport Corridor Project in Tanzania. The objective will be to provide reliable and cost effective transport facilities within three years, in line with the national strategies and policies.

(Source: The World Bank )

Light railway in Jordan

The Jordanian government has sealed a US$333 million deal with a Kuwaiti-Spanish consortium on a light railway linking Amman and the industrial city of Zarqa. The 26 km line with 11 stations is expected to be in operation by 2011, according to Kuwait Times. The project will be implemented under the building, operating and transferring (BOT) system, with a 30-year concession, and is designed to alleviate traffic congestion on the main highway between the two cities.

(Source: Kuwait Times )

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