ABELLIO UK COMPLETES BUYOUT FROM PARENT COMPANY

A rail group is now under UK ownership and sporting a new name following the completion of a management buyout from its Dutch parent company.

Abellio UK is now called Transport UK Group and functioning as a standalone entity after the MBO deal was completed with its state-backed owner Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

The buyout has received formal approvals from parties including the Department for Transport, Transport for London and Merseytravel, while final regulatory consent is expected in the next month from the Office for Rail and Road.

Transport UK Group owns and operates West Midlands Trains, which comprises the West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway brands, East Midlands Railway, Merseyrail in partnership with Serco and Greater Anglia.

It also operates more than 60 London bus routes under Abellio Bus London which are also included in the MBO. The proposed MBO was first announced last August.

Managing director Dominic Booth, who led the MBO, said: “We are thrilled to return key public transport services back into UK ownership. While our name will change to Transport UK Group, our values remain the same.

We will continue to play a key role in the country’s transport sector, ensuring the provision of our award-winning services to passengers around the UK and driving innovation to develop a low-emission UK transport network.”

Nederlandse Spoorwegen was founded in the 1930s and is the main passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.

It said last year when the MBO was first announced that it had decided to withdraw from the UK market after 20 years of operation to focus on domestic and international railway services to and from the Netherlands.