Freightliner trio call in the OFT
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by Karen Miles • The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is examining a bid for British Rail's intermodal container operator Freightliner by Russell Davies, P&O Distribution and the port of Felixstowe.
The OFT investigation, which comes as the final bids are due to be submitted, follows a request by the three companies to know whether a takeover would be anti-competitive.
The companies are bidding under the banner Project Freightliner.
"P&O is one of the nation's biggest shipping line owners, Felixstowe is one of the nation's biggest container ports and Russell Davies is an extremely large road handler of containers. We have gone to the OFT and said, in the event of a bid, would we attract attention from you?" says Peter Bennett, deputy managing director of the port of Felixstowe.
Other bidders for Freightliner include MCB, a management buyout team and Freightliner 2000, backed by the Maersk shipping line.
Freightliner, which owns about 220 tractive units, 500 trailers, more than 1,000 rail wagons and employs around 1,300 staff from 10 terminals, has been up for sale for nearly two-and-a-half years. Following repeated delays the sale is now expected to be completed some time next summer.