GERMANY: BeNEX has completed the acquisition of 100% of Abellio Deutschland from Dutch state passenger train operator NS, which has ended its activities wholly outside the Netherlands in order to focus on its core business within its home country.
The acquisition on October 15 includes regional train operators Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland and WestfalenBahn, as well as cleaning and security services company PTS.
Local rail vision
BeNEX already owned Agilis, Cantus, Nordbahn, Metronom and ODEG.
‘With the takeover of Abellio Deutschland, BeNEX underlines its motivation to help shape local rail passenger transport in Germany in the long term’, said BeNEX Managing Director Johann von Georg. ‘Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland and WestfalenBahn fit perfectly into our existing route networks. Our investment portfolio is thus growing to seven railway transport companies, which, with around 3 700 employees, will provide 65 million train-km/year from 2025.’
BeNEX is owned by listed infrastructure investment group International Public Partnerships Ltd, which said the ‘vast majority’ of the revenues generated by its rail business are availability-based with limited exposure to passenger numbers.
‘The takeover of Abellio Germany represents another milestone for BeNEX in its development into one of the largest and most successful private rail operators in Germany’, said Tim Schlicht, Managing Director of the German subsidiary of IPP. ‘The transaction is in line with our investment strategy of contributing as an active investor to the successful further development of BeNEX in German local rail passenger transport.’
IPP said the economics of the £15m investment into BeNEX are ’significantly more attractive, over the medium to long-term, relative to the economics of engaging in a share buyback’. It has been financed using proceeds from recent realisation activity.
NS opts for the Netherlands
The transfer of Abellio to BeNEX marks the end of NS’s foreign activities, a process that began with the sale of Abellio UK to its management in 2023.
NS announced the planned sale of the German business in April. Financial Director Angelique Magielse said at the time that ’when NS took its first steps across the border some 20 years ago, the starting point was that we wanted to prepare for the changing European rail market. In recent years, that need has disappeared and we have reconsidered our activities. Due to various developments, including coronavirus, we also had to conclude that our remaining foreign activities do not contribute sufficiently.
‘That is why we have decided to sell Abellio Germany as well. With this decision, NS is opting for the Netherlands.’
