HELLO and welcome to the AM Business Briefing, as it is revealed Scottish transport giant Stagecoach is set to go ahead with a merger with one of England's biggest operators.
Rival bus and coach group National Express has agreed an all-share takeover of Perth-base Stagecoach in a deal that will bring together two of the UK's biggest transport firms.
The deal, which comes after talks between the pair were first revealed in September, will create a combined firm worth around £1.9 billion with a fleet of about 40,000 vehicles and a workforce of around 70,000 people.
READ MORE: Bus giants' merger 'strong value' for shareholders
Under the terms of the tie-up, National Express shareholders would own around 75% of the combined group and Stagecoach shareholders around 25%.
Martin Griffiths, chief executive of Stagecoach, said: "This is an exciting opportunity to bring together two of the UK's iconic transport brands to create a strong, diverse business that is well-placed to grow the market for greener and smarter public transport for the benefit of all stakeholders."
Ignacio Garat, chief executive of National Express, who will keep the same role at the merged firm, said: "The proposed combination of National Express and Stagecoach, and the unique strengths of both companies and their teams, will create a leading multi-modal passenger transport business in the UK."
Marc Crothall: Tourism operators are back on the brink of collapse
Two weeks ago, the STA and partners delivered one of our most successful events to date. Over the course of the two-day industry conference at the EICC, we welcomed more than 1000 people to the venue and online.
It was almost two years since our industry had come together; the feeling of connection was stronger than we imagined, it was evident that every single person felt enormously boosted by meeting new and old colleagues, feeling the warmth of human spirit and energy again.
ADC Energy wins trio of global contract extensions
Energy services firm ADC Energy has secured contract extensions to deliver its rig inspection, selection and audit services for three major E&P (exploration and production) companies, including Tullow Oil.
Aberdeen-based ADC, which has completed projects worth more than £8 million with the trio of operators over the last three years, will provide specialist integrated rig inspection services to assets across Europe, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico under the contract extensions.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel