EU countries have to transpose the European legislation on railway packages into national regulations. Progress has been noticed so far and this increases market harmonisation and creates new open markets in Europe.
The market share of railway transport, in intermodal competition with other transport modes and the fluctuation it has suffered in the past years, represents a reference point for changing the attractiveness of the services provided by railway companies. The market structure is triggered by an increasing number of foreign railway operators which enter competition with state operators and this leads to several essential problems: in some states, such as Great Britain, either there are no state operators, or they have withdrawn from market segments (Denmark, the Netherlands and Hungary) or they have been transferred. For example, in Poland, regional transport services provided by the state company (PKP Przewozy Regionalne) have been transferred to regional management authorities. The method of evaluating the competition level by means of the market shares of foreign companies is efficient because the loss of the market share by the national operator has become a clear indicator of a more intense competition.
According to Rail Liberalisation Index 2011 (published by IBM Corporation), the liberalization level of the railway passenger market suggests that “only four states – Sweden, Great Britain, Germany and Denmark – are included in the “advanced” section, 14 countries are currently implementing the liberalization pro-
cess and 9 countries experience delays in implementing the regulation. This shows that the liberalization process in the railway passenger transport has known a slow progress compared to the freight sector and that there are still significant gaps between the European countries”. However, international railway transport services are open in most countries, but some assume the right of imposing cabotage restrictions.
All eyes on Veolia Transdev
After the French press wrote in March that Veolia Transdev didn’t attract buyers for the acquisition of the transport branch that Veolia wanted to sell, it was presumed that Cube Infrastructure Investment Fund (Natixis) might buy a package of stakes in Veolia Transdev from Veolia Environnement. The stake might represent 20% of the company’s capital. Also, the press also informed that other three funds interested in Veolia Transdev had offered prices that Veolia Environnement had considered too low. But in May Cube Infrastructure Investment Fund submitted an offer to enter Veolia Transdev’s capital according to which the Fund will subscribe to the majority of Veolia Transdev’s stakes and will take over a participation in the company. Veolia Environnement’s current 50% stake would thus reduce. The transaction will be submitted to negations by Cube, Veolia Environnement and the French “Caisse des Depots et Consignations”, who owns the other 50% stake. Also, German group Rethmann is interested to take over part of the stakes owned by Veolia Environnement in Veolia Transdev. The accession of Rethmann group in the capital of Veolia Transdev would not exclude the offer made by Cube, the two interested company being both able to buy stakes in the participation held by Veolia Environnement.
[ by Pamela Luică ]
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