EUROPE: The Irish-registered NS Financial Services Co subsidiary of Dutch national train operator NS has sold its final assets and ceased operating, NS announced on April 25.
The fleet of 54 Alstom Coradia Lint 41 diesel multiple-units used by NS subsidiary Abellio Rail Mitteldeutschland on Diesel Netz Sachsen-Anhalt services in Germany have been bought by the 3i European Operational Projects Fund. 3i said the fleet was ‘a stable asset with an attractive yield profile’.
NS formed Dublin-based leasing business NSFSC in 1999 to own its rolling stock. As an Irish-registered company it was subject to lower taxes than a Dutch equivalent would have been, which attracted criticism from Dutch politicians, and in 2015 NS agreed to end the arrangement. In February 2018 NS announced that it had repatriated the leases of around 400 trainsets used on the Dutch network.
