The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is to sell the Angel Trains Group to an investment consortium for £3.6bn. The sale forms part of RBS’ strategy of focusing on its core domestic and international banking businesses.
Angel Trains is the largest of the three rolling stock leasing companies in the UK and also enjoys a presence in the growing passenger train and freight locomotive leasing markets across Europe. It currently owns a total fleet of over 5,000 passenger trains and freight locomotives.
In April this year, the company entered the Scandinavian rail freight market, when it signed a contract with CargoNet for the lease of ten Bombardier Traxx electric locomotives for operations in Norway and Sweden.
Angel Trains was originally formed by the UK Government in 1994 as part of the privatisation of British Rail and was subsequently acquired by RBS in 1997.
The consortium of investors buying the company include Babcock & Brown, AMP Capital Investors, Deutsche Bank and Access Capital Advisers.
The deal, which is still subject to anti-trust approval, is expected to take place before the end of this year.
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