The UK’s National Express is not to be taken over by the Spanish family Cosmen.They have withdrawn their bid .They already own 18% of the shares in the company.Instead of taking the company over they say that they will support a proposal to raise finance from other shareholders.The Cosmens and a private equity company were due to complete the deal last week.
This Asturian family have been in the transport business for almost 300 years.They began by running horse drawn carriages in their home town of Cangas de Narcea.They later merged with Alsa founded in 1923 and then the group was sold to National Express in 2005 for 670 million euros and a 10% stake.When Continental Autos was added for 660 million euros then National Express,based in Birmingham controlled 15% of the Spanish public transport market with over 2000 coaches and 142 million passengers per year on long distance,commuter and urban journeys.
The news of the withdrawal caused National Express shares to drop,at one point they were down by 28% but began to make a recovery by the end of the same day.Jorge Cosmen is deputy chairman of National Express took no part in the discussions .It is believed that they now hope to raise 383 million euros.
