Deutsche Bahn selected investment bank Lazard to find options for its Arriva passenger rail and bus transport, including the possibility on stock market listing.
Lazard will have to elaborate a feasibility study for Arriva’s potential stock market flotation, and Deutsche Bahn’s supervisory board wants to use the study as a basis for discussions on the company’s future at its December meeting, Reuters reports, quoting two sources familiar with the matter.
“By finding investors we aim to support growth in our two international business units (Arriva and Schenker) and to strengthen the financial stability of the group,” a Deutsche Bahn spokesman said.
In July, Deutsche Bahn announced the restructuring program to make the Group fit for the future. Within the “Six-point program”, DB CEO Rüdiger Grube explained that DB Arriva and DB Schenker Logistics to be partially privatized to boost strategic development and finance further growth.
In the first half of 2015, DB’s adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell by 18.2%, or EUR 198 million, to EUR 890 million.
But DB Arriva was more successful in its performance. In the first half of the year, total revenues rose by EUR 165 million, or 7.5%, over the same period last year, up to nearly EUR 2.4 billion. Rail freight transport also felt with 6% from 52 billion tkm to 48.9 billion tkm. Logistics at DB Schenker grew in the first half of the year. The number of Land Transport consignments was up 3.8% year on year.
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