UK: Wabtec Corp of the USA announced on February 28 that it had acquired Brush Traction for US$31m. Operating from plants in Loughborough and Kilmarnock, Brush Traction has built electric locomotives for customers including Eurotunnel and more recently has been active in the locomotive overhaul and refurbishment market. It also supplies locomotive components such as wheelsets and electric traction equipment including motors.
‘This acquisition strengthens our position as a leading aftermarket service provider in the UK’, said Wabtec President & CEO Albert Neupaver. With its focus on the locomotive market, Brush formed ‘a strategic complement’ to the Wabtec Rail unit in Doncaster specialising in the refurbishment of passenger vehicles.
According to Neupaver, Brush Traction enjoys ‘strong engineering capabilities, a highly-skilled workforce and a long-standing reputation for quality’. Wabtec expects the transaction to be accretive in the first year.
