SNCF announced on Monday that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Québec (CDPQ) with a view to the sale of its locomotive rental subsidiary Akiem, currently owned 50/50 by the assets of the German management company. DWS.
The operation, the amount of which has not been specified, would reinforce CDPQ’s presence in European rail transport, after the acquisition last October of the car rental company Ermewa for 3,200 million euros, already sold by the SNCF/ DWS.
Regarding Akiem, SNCF and DWS – a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank – had received offers of between 2,500 and 3,000 million euros from CDQP, the US investment bank JP Morgan and the French fund Vauban, according to press information. CDQP’s offer still needs to be submitted to SNCF and Akiem staff representatives and submitted to competition authorities, according to the press release.
Fleet of more than 600 locomotives and 46 trains
The operation should allow “to participate in the financing of our main activities and the group’s growth engines, while accelerating its debt reduction,” said Laurent Trevisani, SNCF’s general manager in charge of finance and strategy. It is “fully in line with the SNCF Group’s strategy: to become a world leader in sustainable passenger and freight mobility, with a core rail business and two strategic assets, Geodis and Keolis,” operating respectively in logistics and public transport, he noted. . in the press release.
Laurent Trevisani sees Akiem’s future owner as “a long-term partner” who, if the deal goes through without incident, should remain “a business partner of SNCF”. The CDPQ is well known to the SNCF, as it is a co-shareholder – a minority – of its public transport subsidiary Keolis and of the transcanal company Eurostar (which has just absorbed Thalys) and therefore has already acquired Ermewa from the SNCF and DWS.
CDPQ is also Alstom’s largest shareholder, since the acquisition of Bombardier in early 2021. Founded in 2008 to support the opening of rail freight transport to competition, Akiem manages a fleet of more than 600 locomotives and 46 trains. passengers, with three quarters of electricity. It has just created with the Banque des Territoires (Caisse des dépôts) a subsidiary specializing in the leasing of passenger trains to the regions, the State and railway operators.
The Paris-based company employs around 250 people. In 2021, it generated a gross operating surplus (Ebidta) of 150 million euros for a turnover of 220 million.
Source: BFM TV
