London office advises Nederlandse Spoorwegen on sale of interest in Abellio UK

Global firm Norton Rose Fulbright is advising Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) on the sale of Abellio UK to Transport UK Group Ltd, a new company established by the management team of Abellio UK and led by its CEO, Dominic Booth.

This is one of the first transactions in the UK rail market since the pandemic, representing the structured exit by NS - the Dutch Railway - from the UK rail and bus markets after more than 20 years. It also represents the establishment of a new UK-based rail and bus operator.

Abellio UK is one of the leading operators of rail services in the UK and presently operates alone or in joint ventures the East Midlands, West Midlands, Greater Anglia and Merseyrail services, as well as over 50 London bus routes. It also recently operated the Scotrail franchise.

Completion of the transaction, which is expected in the last quarter of 2022, is conditional upon formal approval from partners and regulators, including the Department for Transport, Transport for London and Merseytravel.

Lead partner Mark Lloyd Williams said: "We are delighted to assist NS on the first signed M&A transaction in the UK passenger rail market since the pandemic. The present regulatory and contractual framework makes this kind of M&A transaction complicated and challenging, and gave us an opportunity to provide NS with flexible solutions to achieve its goals.”

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by Mark Lloyd Williams in London, with support from Charlie Bremner, Khawaja Akbar, Julia Lebedeva, Anna Phillips and Dennis Ng (corporate), Dominic Stuttaford (tax), Lesley Browning and Grahame Tricker (pensions), Ian Giles (regulatory), Emma Giddings (finance) and Matt Findlay (benefits).

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was assisted by a team from Brodies, including Bruce Stephen, Peter Brading, Karen Davidson and Rebecca Easton, who provided Scottish law advice.