First Manchester

[gilesbus1]

RE: First Manchester
Is there not a further situation where the Manchester operations as a separate company legally to FirstGroup i.e. First Manchester Ltd, could bring in the receiver and go into voluntary receivership which the receiver selling off the assets to clear the debt. I've never ever heard of this before, but I am sure its possible.

In that situation I guess the first thing that might happen is FirstGroup as its own entity buy back the newer buses and use them to replace elderly stocks of buses elsewhere.

If the assets were sold like that I guess no garage would be secure unless someone made a bit for the garage and assets as the garage sites can be used for other uses and therefore the fleets there would be homeless.

In terms of Barnstaple I think Manchester is too big to just do that, and raise on capital from it as the capital assets are quite big.

Of course I aren't 100% sure of the legality of that, but I am sure it must be possible as other groups have liquidated parts in the past, take the owners of HMV for example.

On another topic I have heard that the sale might not include Vantage services and they might be continued by First from a separate base in Leigh that may or may not be purchased, how true that might be remains to be seen.