NBC sell off: "clearly right"
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• With some 50 of its 72 operating subsidiaries already sold-off the National Bus Company privatisation could net well over £300 million, more than three times the initial estimate of between £54) and 100 According to the NBC Report and Accounts for the 15 months to the end of March this year, nett proceeds from the sale could go as high as £306 million.
In his foreword to the report, NBC chairman Rodney Lund says the figure takes into account an the costs of restructuring NBC into a decentralised organisation from a centralised one, as well as the financial impact of deregulation, which led to a slimming down of the workforce by over 10% with consequent redundancy costs."
Lund, however says it "was clearly right" that NBC should be privatised in parts, if the bus market "was to become truly competitive".
On completion of the disposal programme, NBC estimates "that the Government will receive an additional sum of over £80 million from the proceeds, after all outstanding loans and debts have been repaid in full. Over the 18 years since NBC's formation, the Government will have realised £455 million from its investment in interest, loan repayment and additional monies".
The latest operating subsidiaries to be sold off are Northumbria Motor Services and Alder Valley South.
Northumbria is the most northerly of NBC's original 72 operating companies, running a fleet of 319 buses, minibuses and coaches serving an area from the Tyne to the Scottish borders. It also runs longdistance coaches including 'Rapide' routes on behalf of National Express. NMS has been sold to a management buy-out team led by managing director Tony Kerman and en gineering director John Fickling.
Northumbria was formed just over a year ago, when the extensive network of United Automobile Services was divided into three to make it more competitive after deregulation. All United operations of the Tyne were transferred to Northumbria.
Aldershot-based Alder Valley South has been bought by Frontsource, the bus engineering company whose head office is on an adjacent site to AVS. Frontsource has already bought eight former NBC subsidiaries, including AV Engineering — but this is its first operating bus company.
Frontsource chairman Robert Beattie now becomes chairman of Alder Valley South, whose managing director is Brian Hirst. AVS runs 226 buses and coaches, including 60 minibuses, on services around West Surrey and East Hampshire. It employs 560 staff, and is a partner in the Londonlink commuter coach network.
National Bus Company has decided to re-open bidding for the purchase of six of its subsidiary companies. The six are: East Midland Motor Services; Lincolnshire Road Car Company; London Country Bus (South West); Midland Red North; North Devon (Red Bus); Southern National.