Transport company FirstGroup yesterday announced a £1.9bn deal to take over American bus business Laidlaw.

TRANSPORT company FirstGroup yesterday announced a £1.9bn deal to take over American bus business Laidlaw.

The UK's largest rail and bus operator will now own its US counterpart which runs Greyhound cross-country coaches.

FirstGroup, which is based in Aberdeen, will also take over operation of Laidlaw's fleets of yellow school buses.

The deal will consolidate FirstGroup's position in North America, where it already operates transit management contracting and vehicle maintenance services.

In 1999, the company bought Ryder Public Transportation Services and began operating First Student, which already owns a fleet of more than 21,000 of the trademark yellow school buses.

But the latest acquisition will mean that FirstGroup will become the biggest single school bus operator in the US.

Around 98,000 people will be employed by FirstGroup in North America and Canada and it will run about 63,000 school buses.

Moir Lockhead, chief executive of FirstGroup, said: "FirstGroup's acquisition of Laidlaw will considerably enhance the group's existing activities in North America, which themselves have grown strongly since we first invested in the US in 1999."

FirstGroup, which was formed out of a merger of Grampian Regional Transport and Badgerline Group in 1995, has grown to become the UK's leading transport operator.

It operates 23% of the local bus market and 23% of the passenger rail network.