FirstGroup has announced the first disposal in its planned bus divestment programme in a £12 million deal with Stagecoach to offload its operations in Wigan, Greater Manchester.
But analysts raised questions about the pressures on indebted FirstGroup to sell good businesses, after Stagecoach revealed that the Wigan company last year had revenues of £13.2m and an operating profit of £1.5m. FirstGroup chief executive Tim O'Toole told the annual meeting in Aberdeen in July that all the businesses being offloaded had aggregate revenues of £140m and "zero" profits.
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