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AMEY buys
WYG’s rail arm
Councils
seek funding
for new
Cambridge
station
Amey has bought the White
Young Green Group’s rail
division for an undisclosed sum.
Part of WYG Engineering,
the consultancy’s rail division
employs 100 people and has several
existing rail contracts, including
professional services frameworks.
Mel Ewell
The move will strengthen
Amey’s capability in its work on
civils and stations.
Mel Ewell, chief executive
of consultancy Amey, said: ‘This
strategic acquisition shows that
Amey is committed to achieving
sustained growth across the
Bonds offered by
Angel Trains
Angel Trains has issued
£800m of bonds as part
of a long-term debt-refinancing
programme.
The rolling stock leasing
company (Rosco) has bank loans
of around £800m, dating from
its takeover by a consortium of
investors when it was sold by the
Royal Bank of Scotland in 2008.
The loans are due to be repaid in
June 2011.
Potential investors will be
offered a 10-year ‘bullet’ bond or a
25-year amortising bond, sales of
which will enable Angel Trains to
pay off its bank loans.
George Lynn, chief financial
officer of Angel Trains, said:
‘We are delighted to be able to
issue two successful benchmarksized
bonds, particularly given
recent volatile corporate market
conditions.
‘The issue is a key part of
our long-term debt refinancingprogramme
and strengthens the
company by diversifying our
sources of finance and our debt
maturity profile.’
business with a real emphasis on
the rail market.
‘We are pleased to welcome
these additional experts from
WYG, who bring strong
partnerships with major rail
customers, as well as expertise and
knowledge of the rail market.
‘We look forward to
integrating their capability into the
business and further developing
our rail offering.’
Paul Hamer, chief executive
officer of the WYG Group,
said: ‘Amey has identified a
synergy between its business
aspirations and our rail profile and
capabilities.
‘Both Amey and WYG believe
the opportunity to integrate
our rail team into the wider
Amey business is best for all parties
including our respective clients.’
‘The move will
strengthen Amey’s
capabilities in its work
on civils and stations’
Hammond to
move Network
Rail debt to
Treasury
Transport secretary Philip
Hammond is planning to
move Network Rail’s debt onto
the Treasury’s books, as a possible
precursor to re-privatising the
infrastructure owner.
Speaking at the National
Rail Conference in Liverpool, he
revealed that he is unconcerned
about where the debt appears
on paper, but wants to act in
the best interests of the railway.
Network Rail has debts of around
£23bn, from borrowing to fund
infrastructure work.
Private sector support is being
sought for a proposed new
station in Cambridge, following
fears that government funding
will be cancelled as a result of
the spending review.
A station was to be built at
Chesterton on the King’s Cross
to King’s Lynn line, between the
existing Cambridge station and
Waterbeach.
The scheme, which would
cost around £24m for a threeplatform
station, was due to be
completed in 2015. Of that,
£21m was to come from the
government’s regional funding
allocation.
Graham Hughes,
Cambridgeshire County
Council’s director of growth and
infrastructure said: ‘We want
to speak to the industry in the
first instance, to identify what
options there are as alternatives
to a straight grant.
‘We would look at either
paring down the cost, or the
possibility of whether there’s a
commercial way of funding it,
either through the Tocs, Network
Rail or a third party provider – or
a combination of all of those and
some public money.’
A meeting is to take place
between the county council,
Cambridge City Council, South
Cambridgeshire District Council,
Network Rail, First Capital
Connect, National Express East
Anglia and CrossCountry to try
to find a way forward.
The existing station at Cambridge
AUGUST 2010 PAGE 11