ONE of the main rolling stock leasing companies, Eversholt Rail, is set to be sold to a Chinese bidder. The price is reported to be around £1 billion.
The Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, who owns one of the two members of the purchasing consortium, Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, is seeking to raise more than £300 million through a share issue in Hong Kong to provide its share of the joint purchase price.
The other member is Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited. Together they form the proposed purchaser CK Investments S.A R.L. (normally known as CKI).
Eversholt Rail Group, which owns some 28 per cent of British rolling stock, is presently owned by Eversholt Investment Group S.C.S., a consortium of 3i Infrastructure plc, Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and STAR Capital Partners, which bought Eversholt from HSBC in December 2010.
The deal will need to be cleared by the European Commission under the EU Merger rules, and Eversholt said it expected to complete the transaction in March.
Eversholt's CEO Mary Kenny said: "Eversholt Rail has performed strongly, both operationally and financially, under its current ownership providing, managing and maintaining key UK rail assets. We look forward to continuing our success with CKI, who have extensive experience in managing infrastructure assets and are highly supportive of our strategy and approach.”