A consortium made up of Australasian bus operator Kinetic Group and transport concession manager Globalvia Inversiones has nosed ahead in a race to purchase The Go-Ahead Group after its fifth offer for the business was recommended for shareholder acceptance by the Go-Ahead board.
Go-Ahead Chief Executive Christian Schreyer has described the consortium’s offer for the group as “compelling,” adding that the £648m valuation is “attractive” for shareholders.
If it progresses, the deal will see the Go-Ahead brand retained and the group operate as a standalone subsidiary of the consortium, which will deliver an overall payment of £15 for each Go-Ahead share held. That figure contrasts with the consortium’s first offer for the group in January, which was £9.75p per share.
Should the offer be accepted by Go-Ahead shareholders, it is expected that the acquisition will be completed in October. For it to proceed, acceptance in respect of at least 75% of Go-Ahead shares is required.
The consortium has listed “an opportunity for Go-Ahead to increase its footprint in the UK bus market” as one of the reasons for its interest. It adds that potential to pool expertise would deliver “a leading global multimodal mass transit platform” with a focus on moving to zero-emission.
Managing Directors of Go-Ahead operating companies will be retained under the proposals, as will be the group’s senior management team including Mr Schreyer and Chair Clare Hollingsworth. The group’s Chief Financial Officer is expected to remain with Go-Ahead for a transitional period of up to 18 months from completion of the purchase.
Earlier on the same day that it recommended acceptance of the Kinetic and Globalvia offer, the Go-Ahead board had stated that a rival approach from Kelsian Group – which owns Tower Transit – was something that it would also “be minded” to recommend for acceptance. All parties were thus given access to undertake confirmatory due diligence.
Kinetic runs almost 4,000 buses in Australia and New Zealand across 70 depots. Globalvia operates and maintains 26 infrastructure projects, including 1,800km of highways and 80km of rail and metro lines.
