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Arriva to float on stock market

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As detailed in the guardian today Arriva look like they will float

https://www.theguardian.com/busines...lans-float-arriva-uk-train-bus-services#img-1

Deutsche Bahn pushes ahead with plans to float Arriva

German railway group expects to get approval for sale of international arm, which runs many UK train and bus service

Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent

Wednesday 4 May 2016 12.38 BST Last modified on Wednesday 4 May 2016 16.13 BST

Deutsche Bahn is pushing ahead with plans to float Arriva, its international transport arm that runs many of Britain’s train and bus services, as part of a sell-off to raise an anticipated €4.5bn (£3.6bn) for the ailing German railway group.

The supervisory board of the state-owned group is expected to approve plans on Wednesday evening for a part-privatisation of both Arriva, which operates in 14 European countries outside Germany, and the international freight logistics subsidiary DB Schenker.

The final decision on an IPO is expected in the autumn, with Deutsche Bahn likely to sell a 45% stake in both. The company is seeking to reduce its €17.5bn debt and invest in modernising German railways.

Arriva started operating the Northern rail franchise, one of Britain’s biggest transport networks, last month. It also runs CrossCountry, London Overground, Chiltern and Grand Central trains, and thousands of bus services across the country.

The largest rail union said the sale could affect British employees of Arriva or DB Schenker, and services. The RMT’s general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “This potential fire sale of a large chunk of DB’s UK rail assets to the same old gang of spivs and speculators has set the alarm bells ringing for all Arriva and DB Schenker staff who once again see their livelihoods traded from under them as nothing more than units on a balance sheet.”

He said the flotation exposed the “flakey and unstable nature of rail franchising”, with Deutsche Bahn allowed to win rail contracts and then hold a “corporate car-boot sale without any controls over who is getting a slice of the action”.

Rail staff terms and conditions are normally protected when franchises are awarded under TUPE laws, as are passenger services under franchise obligations.

An Arriva spokesman said: “Arriva has a strong track record of investment in the UK, investing £549m in the past five years and employing 28,000 people across the country.

“Deutsche Bahn is considering a third-party minority holding in Arriva which is intended to continue the successful development of Arriva and enable further investments in future growth.”
 
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Simon11

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The largest rail union said the sale could affect British employees of Arriva or DB Schenker, and services. The RMT’s general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “This potential fire sale of a large chunk of DB’s UK rail assets to the same old gang of spivs and speculators has set the alarm bells ringing for all Arriva and DB Schenker staff who once again see their livelihoods traded from under them as nothing more than units on a balance sheet.”

What a load of rubbish:lol: Why do union members think it is okay for their union leader says such comments?

I don't see RMT claiming that their staff are being impacted as a result of TOC being owned by a company with share holders......
 

gimmea50anyday

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The supervisory board of the state-owned group is expected to approve plans on Wednesday evening for a part-privatisation of Arriva


Irony. Flotation to part privatize Arriva. So they are privatizing a private company run by a national government being operated as a private company....
 
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route:oxford

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What a load of rubbish:lol: Why do union members think it is okay for their union leader says such comments?

More importantly, what does the union leader call the staff who buy shares in the company they work for?

Owning just a single share in your employer can be quite empowering. At a previous firm, it was enough to silence an overzealous HR "Partner" mid-sentence.
 

6Gman

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I could buy back the shares DB bought off me a few years ago! :D

Seriously, I'm not sure the employees will see much difference.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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I could buy back the shares DB bought off me a few years ago! :D
Seriously, I'm not sure the employees will see much difference.

It would be fun if Stagecoach or another UK transport major bought into Arriva. Or SNCF.
But it's more likely to be a private equity fund or a Canadian public pension fund.
Nothing to stop RMT investing its pension fund in a successful UK-German transport firm which employs many of its members.
 

WatcherZero

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German Government has been telling DB for several months to raise some money by reducing their foreign investments. Arriva includes rail and is their main foreign investment division (aside from freight, several pre-existing DB Regio foreign operations were folded in as well) accounting for around 12% of corporate revenues, they had created another division for foreign acquisitions before they bought Arriva, DB Netze, however they since wound it down and it now only handles their infrastructure investments. DB Schenker is a huge part of the company though and accounts for fully 50% of revenue, the other main divisions are German regional trains (20%) and long distance trains (10%).


Perhaps the unions will be complaining about the privatisation of that this former state owned company subsidised by British commuters.
 

Aeion

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What a load of rubbish:lol: Why do union members think it is okay for their union leader says such comments?

I don't see RMT claiming that their staff are being impacted as a result of TOC being owned by a company with share holders......

I don't think that's too far off he mark having worked for London midland I have seen how a bad set of figures for the share holders see's them cutting back on everything from the RPI's that lost their jobs, trains being cleaned at Liverpool, the trolley services, booking office hours being cut or closed permanently, cheaper uniforms, a constant drive for more for less and let's be honest the biggest cost is staff, so how long before we have the even bigger push for DOO than is already taking place?
 

route:oxford

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Nothing to stop RMT investing its pension fund in a successful UK-German transport firm which employs many of its members.

An ultra-left wing union investing their pension fund in capitalism?

Surely it's all in ethical government and Co-operative Society bonds?
 

Robertj21a

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It's important to point out that the name DB Schenker no longer applies to the UK rail freight arm of DB. The rebranding exercise carried out last year splits the company into two separate segments.

DB Cargo is the rail bit.

DB Schenker is road, air and sea.

As to how this applies to such entities as Arriva Trains Wales etc, remains to be seen. I suspect what we are seeing here is a partial offloading of bus services as well as air, road and sea freight.

Employees were made aware of this via internal communication around 6 months ago.

I haven't seen anything that suggests 'a partial offloading of bus service......etc etc' - surely they are offering shares in the company itself, not getting rid of parts of it.
 

WatcherZero

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Yes, suggested they would Float 45% of shares in the two subsidiaries on the stock market.
 

hairyhandedfool

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....Employees were made aware of this via internal communication around 6 months ago.

Employees who were employees six months ago may have been told six months ago, employees who were not employees six months ago got a briefing two days after the media released their stories (and possibly only then as a response to inquiries by some employees).
 

Robertj21a

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Employees who were employees six months ago may have been told six months ago, employees who were not employees six months ago got a briefing two days after the media released their stories (and possibly only then as a response to inquiries by some employees).


I honestly can't see why there should be much concern, it's the Union just trying to wind people up. It's only a minority (albeit significant) shareholding that's being proposed for sale.
 

Philip Phlopp

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I honestly can't see why there should be much concern, it's the Union just trying to wind people up. It's only a minority (albeit significant) shareholding that's being proposed for sale.

It's the same union who have encouraged their members to make the maximum use of employee share options.
 

hairyhandedfool

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To be fair, if you weren't an employee six months ago, DB were hardly likely to tell you until you became an employee. Being told after it was reported in the media is a bit crap though.

I can't blame Db or Arriva for not letting us know earlier than April 1st, and maybe day one would not have been a good day anyway. I'm not even sure who it would fall to to say something, but far too often news from management, on a range of subjects, appears to have only been sent out after everyone already knows, and usually about two or three days after.
 
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