Russell Davies pulls out of bidding for Freightliner
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• Russell Davies has written off 1200,000 after an eleventhhour decision to pull out of the bidding for British Rail's container carrier Freightliner.
The move, which the road container operator denies is connected to the Office of Fair Trading review of its joint bid for Freightliner, leaves fellow consortium members P&O Distribution and the port of Felixstowe re-grouping for the bid.
Although the OFT review is believed to be proving unfavourable towards the consortium's bid, Russell Davies says its "main concern is to protect our customers' interests, many of whom are major users of rail". Russell Davies has been interested in buying the rail company from BR for the past five years. It says the change of plan was also influenced by the pre-Christmas publication of detailed information on Freightliner's business.
The Government wants to be working with its preferred bidder by the end of March in order to complete the sale by early Summer.
Freightliner runs locomotives and over 1,000 rail wagons, 220 tractive units and 500 trailers, accounting for 25% of the container market.
Two other consortia—a management buyout and a bid backed by Maersk Shipping Lines—are also bidding for the loss-making organisation,