The Man * UK - Took the bus from Aberdeen to America
London,UK -The Economist -Apr 2nd 2009: -- Sir Moir Lockhead is chief executive of FirstGroup, yet another British firm that is derided at home but is in fact doing rather well abroad. Under his leadership First, which started out as a regional British bus operator, moved into trains and then transformed itself into one of the world’s biggest transport companies by taking control of two American icons—yellow school buses and Greyhound intercity coaches... Sir Moir points out that about half of First’s revenues come from the public sector on both sides of the Atlantic... Sir Moir had considered expanding into neighbouring European countries such as France and Germany, but found their markets too closed and tightly regulated. So he headed for America instead, persuading Ryder Transportation to sell its school-bus division in 1999. This gave First a toehold in a huge market, worth about $14 billion, in which 470,000 yellow buses carry 24m schoolchildren every weekday. In February 2007 Sir Moir agreed the takeover of America’s Laidlaw group, making First the largest operator of school buses in the United States and Canada and giving it control of the Greyhound coach network, which carries 25m passengers a year. The deal, funded with $2.25 billion of debt, was sealed in October 2007 just as the credit crunch set in. First’s shares have since been clobbered, falling by 68% since January 2008, compared with a 40% drop in the main London stockmarket index. Investors worried that First had taken on too much debt and faced high fuel costs... For Sir Moir it is a long way from running buses in Aberdeen, but it is not a bad place to be at all... (UPPA Photoshot)Labels: transport industry news UK
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