Australian-Spanish consortium makes £647.7m firm bid for Go-Ahead
A consortium made up by Australian bus operator Kinetic and Spanish infrastructure group firm Globalvia has announced its £647.7m firm offer for Go-Ahead.
Recommended by the company’s board, the offer represents a premium of 48.5 per cent to the UK bus operator’s closing price on 25 May as well as a 77.6 per cent increase on the group’s average price for the period ended 10 June.
Advised by Rothschild & CO, the board considered the terms of the acquisition to be “fair and reasonable.”
As part of the deal, Go-Ahead shareholders will receive 1,450p in cash and a special dividend of 50p per share instead of final dividend for year to 2 July.
The bus operator is the latest transport firm to be bought by foreign investors.
Fellow coach company Stagecoach was snatched underneath National Express by German asset manager DWS Infrastructure in May while last week public transport titan First Group rejected a £1.2bn bid from US private equity I Squared.
The deal was agreed on the same day Go-Ahead reported it had received another unsolicited, conditional approach from Australian tour operator Kelsian, Morning Wire reported.