Eversholt Rail Group
Private | |
Industry | Rail |
Founded | 1994 |
Headquarters | London, UK |
Key people |
Mary Kenny (Chief executive) |
Products | Rolling stock |
Owner |
3i Infrastructure Morgan Stanley Infrastructure STAR Capital Partners |
Website |
www |
Eversholt Rail Group (formerly HSBC Rail (UK) Limited) is one of the three major ROSCOs (rolling stock operating company) in the United Kingdom. Created in 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail, it owns around a third of passenger railway locomotives, multiple units and coaching stock running on Network Rail's system which it leases to various train operators.
Financing services include operating leases, procurement, refurbishment, engineering support and maintenance improvements. The company manages a fleet of over 4,000 vehicles, and has a team of in-house engineers to maintain them.[1]
History
Eversholt Leasing was established on 21 March 1994.[2] It was subsequently purchased in a management/employee buyout supported by Candover in February 1996 for £518 million. Thirteen months later Candover sold Eversholt for £726.5 million to Forward Trust Group, part of Midland Bank, which was itself a subsidiary of HSBC.[3][4]
The privatisation and subsequent sale of the ROSCOs caused a great deal of debate, since the UK National Audit Office asserts that the UK Government had not realised fair market value for the sale of the assets.[5] The sale to Forward Trust saw a 40% increase in the price the Department of Transport had sold the company for. Testimony relating to the sale of Eversholt was given by Andrew Jukes, Managing Director of Forward Trust to the UK Parliament's Select Committee on Public Accounts, 3 June 1998.[6][7]
HSBC Rail changed its name back to Eversholt in January 2010, and was sold to the Eversholt Investment Group consortium in November 2010.[3] In January 2015 3i agreed to sell its stake to CK Investments, a joint venture owned by Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings and Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings (CKI), for £358m.[8] CKI has agreements to buy out all the consortium members subject to regulatory approval for a combined £2.5bn.[9]
See also
- Porterbrook
- Angel Trains
- Privatisation of British Rail
- List of companies operating trains in the United Kingdom
- List of rolling-stock leasing companies
References
- ↑ HSBC Rail
- ↑ "HSBC Rail (UK) Limited". workSMART.org.uk.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "HSBC sells Eversholt train leasing business". Railway Gazette International. 5 November 2010.
- ↑ http://www.candover.com/candover/deals/case-studies-article.jsp?id=303[]
- ↑ "Privatisation of the Rolling Stock Leasing Companies". Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General. 5 March 1998.
- ↑ House of Commons - Public Accounts - Minutes of Evidence
- ↑ Select Committee on Public Accounts Supplementary Memorandum from Mr Andrew Jukes of Forward Trust Rail Limited
- ↑ Lewin, Joel (20 January 2015). "Li Ka-shing to acquire Eversholt Rail". Financial Times. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
- ↑ "3i Infrastructure sells Eversholt Rail stake". Money AM. Retrieved 18 February 2015.