News - Midlands
Stagecoach makes National Express bid
Stagecoach has made an offer to buy Birmingham transport rival National Express after the consortium that was expected to take over the company pulled out of talks last week. The group, comprising private equity firm CVC Capital and the Cosmen family, National Express's largest shareholder, withdrew its £765m offer on Friday. Stagecoach, which operates South West Trains and East Midlands Trains, was originally interested in the bus and rail operations of National Express. It ruled itself out of bidding alone for National Express in September, but has now made a new all-share offer. National Express confirmed that it had received a "highly preliminary" all-share offer from Stagecoach and was considering it, but said it wanted to push ahead with plans to issue new shares to shore up its finances. The offer from Stagecoach would mean National Express shareholders owning no more than 40 per cent of the enlarged group, National Express said. Shares in the company rose 8 per cent in early trading to 392p. They had fallen 23 per cent on Friday after the consortium withdrew its offer.