DENMARK: Knorr-Bremse has bought DSB’s Component Workshops business, which undertakes rolling stock subsystem overhauls and has long-term parts supply agreements with the national passenger operator.
Knorr-Bremse will integrate DSB Component Workshops and its 400 full-time employees at five sites in Aarhus and København into its RailServices business, as a regional service hub targeting growth in Norway and Sweden as well as Denmark.
Dr Jürgen Wilder, Knorr-Bremse executive board member for the Rail Vehicle Systems Division, said the €50m acquisition announced on September 1 was ‘an excellent fit with our aftermarket and growth strategy, under which we offer our customers a portfolio of tailor-made solutions and services over the entire life-cycle of their rail vehicles’.
In February 2020, DSB appointed SEB Corporate Finance to help it explore options to divest DSB Component Workshops, saying new train fleets maintained by the suppliers would reduce the need for its own workshops.
Announcing the purchase, DSB CEO Flemming Jensen said that ‘Knorr-Bremse has all that it takes to bring DSB Component Workshop’s know how and skills to the next level, develop its value proposition, expand into the digital realm, and help us make train travel in Denmark even more available and attractive’.
