4BC: four to buy
Page 19
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
I Four management buy-out -oposals to take over
ational Bus Company subsiaries are at an advanced age, Transport Secretary Nitolas Ridley said this week. He could not say when the ;gotiations will be complete, it added: "So far as I am vare no bus company mangetilt is being held up by NBC its efforts to purchase the )mpany."
Ridley said that so far more on 50 management teams in le subsidiaries have ex:-essed interest in a buy-out. Even before deregulation is . force, services in many cies have already improved id minibuses are being introiced on a large scale, he lid.
Ridley attacked Labour and lliance politicians for scaring eople at the recent by-elecons by claiming that only the gistered mileage will be That is not the full truth, he lid. Councils have 10% more ioney to subsidise tendered ervices and they will only ave to subsidise a quarter of le routes.
Ridley's comments came on eve of publication of IBC's annual report for 1985, bowing pre-tax operating profit for the group down from 246 million to 235.8 million on turnover up from £754.1 million to 2807.2 million.
Passenger journeys are up from 1.43 billion to 1.44 billion, the first time in NBC's 17year history that there has been an increase in passenger traffic.
It credits the introduction of urban minibuses — expected to total 3,000 by the end of the year — with much of the increase, although there has also been growth in coach travel, with National Express passengers up 3.5% to 15.4 million.
According to NBC chairman Rodney Lund, the 70 NBC subsidiary companies are all ready to face the challenge of privatisation and deregulation.
On the question of service cuts, Lund said: "Provided that the county councils and their ratepayers continue to consider that uneconomic services are socially desirable, and provided they continue to make available appropriate funds, the new local bus companies will be only too willing to tender for the operation of those services."