Stagecoach opts for rival takeover in blow to National Express merger plan

theguardian.com:

The British bus operator Stagecoach has dropped its support for a £1.9bn merger with National Express, instead agreeing to be taken over by a major infrastructure investment fund in a £595m deal.

In a sudden U-turn, Stagecoach said it was recommending a sale to the fund managed by the German firm DWS Infrastructure for 105p a share in cash, and has withdrawn support for the National Express bid.

National Express and rival Stagecoach had sealed an all-share deal in December that would have brought Stagecoach’s UK local bus operations together with National Express’s intercity coach network. The group would have had its headquarters at National Express’s home in the West Midlands, and have a 40,000-strong vehicle fleet and a workforce of 70,000 people. That tie-up was being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority, which served an initial enforcement order in January to stop the firms from combining operations or selling any UK businesses while it looked into the deal.

DWS, spun out from Deutsche Bank in 2018 via a flotation on the Frankfurt stock exchange, has a number of other investments in the UK, including Corelink Rail Infrastructure; Kelda, the owner of Yorkshire Water; and Peel Ports.

Stagecoach said the DWS bid offered greater certainty for investors and employees, with the overall headcount of bus drivers expected to remain the same, as well as the retention of Stagecoach’s headquarters in Perth, central Scotland, along with its staff, as well as related roles in Perth, London and Stockport. It added that the new deal would also provide continuity at the top, with the chief executive, finance director and UK managing director staying on.

Martin Griffiths, the chief executive of Stagecoach, said: “The