Diamond Bus North West

[gilesbus1]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(11/07/2019 21:05)Winston Wrote:  RAPT sold Yellow Buses as it's loss making & locked in intense competition with Go South Coast 'More' services.

Centrebus haven't expanded for years.

You've not included NX Group on your list, they are in the unique position and overlap with very little of First UK Bus or Arriva UK, only slighyly in the Midlands.

Then theirs Souter Investments which has a nice big lump of cash following the sale of ADL & Polski Bus.

I think the above are more likely over some unnamed 'Australian Bus Operator'

Would Souter Investments be able to though when he holds Stagecoach shares? Would that simply not be blocked and/or investigated by the MMC? Office of Fair Trading? and either him being forced to release his Stagecoach shares or place himself in a none executive position on Stagecoach's board with shares being locked, until an age when he is no longer part of either company operationally. E.g. a Souter Size pension fund. I've also heard that Souter wants the routes but not the business to avoid any MMC investigation, that situation would be very unlikely, especially as Venture Capitalists would likely become involved, and so far of the five bids for Arriva none have been made by any Brian Souter company, although he still has time to mount a bid for the moment! unless of course he is more interested now in what is a FirstGroup based on the fact that is more likely to be broken now and he can hedge his bets on Arriva being bought by one of the Venture Capitalists and broken up later on. Of course nothing is to say that Stagecoach might break off companies in the future should it get into financial difficulty at a latter stage, or doesn't like what some Andy Burnham type character is doing i elsewhere, or Andy Burnham him himself is doing in Manchester, e.g. after a final legal push in Manchester and the toys are thrown out of the basket if it loses money elsewhere in one of its fleets, e.g. another East Lancashire.

I am lead to believe National Express is not really interested in much beyond the West Midlands, otherwise why has it not yet raised its hand in the 25 years or so its held West Midlands except in Dundee? Perhaps National Express is a vehicle to continue and inject capital into what was Travel West Midlands and also the MBO at Tayside. I've also wondered over the years why National Express didn't join up as a merger with GoAhead, as nothing duplicates between them, despite GoAhead getting its toes burn't in Birmingham previously, National Express is a different picture to Birmingham Coach Company and Peoples Express.