Australian bus company acquires London double decker buses | NOW

Australian bus company Kinetic, together with a number of other investors, is acquiring Go-Ahead Group. They are £648m (€754m) the biggest operator of London’s iconic red double-decker buses, according to a report by Kinetic on Tuesday. Bloomberg about the message.

Go-Ahead operates nearly a quarter of London’s buses, including part of the city’s zero-emissions fleet. The company also owns Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), the UK’s largest rail operator. GTR is responsible for commuter trains to London and the Express line to Gatwick Airport.

Kinetic is Australia and New Zealand’s largest bus company and is partnering for the acquisition with Globalvia, which operates metro lines in four Spanish cities and operates a number of motorways. The companies are backed by the Canadian pension fund OPTrust.

Interest in takeovers of UK transport companies has increased recently. Investors expect a rebound in passenger traffic after the coronavirus pandemic and are attracted by the stable returns offered by the sector due to the dominance of multi-year government contracts.