Rail: SNCF and DWS to sell locomotive rental company Akiem


SNCF announced on Monday that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ).

SNCF announced on Monday that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec (CDPQ) with a view to the sale of its locomotive rental subsidiary Akiem, currently owned 50/50 with the German management company DWS assets. The transaction, the amount of which has not been specified, would strengthen CDPQ’s presence in European rail transport, after the acquisition last October of the railcar rental company Ermewa for 3.2 billion euros, already sold by the tandem SNCF/DWS.

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Regarding Akiem, SNCF and DWS – a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank – had received offers ranging between 2.5 and 3 billion euros from CDQP, the American investment bank JP Morgan and the French fund Vauban, according to press reports. The CDQP offer must still be presented to the representatives of the SNCF and Akiem staff and be submitted to the competition authorities, according to the press release. The operation must allowto participate in the financing of our core activities and the group’s growth drivers, while accelerating its debt reduction“commented Laurent Trevisani, general manager of SNCF in charge of finance and strategy.

She “is fully in line with the SNCF Group’s strategy: to become a world leader in sustainable passenger and freight mobility, with a core rail business and two strategic assets, Geodis and Keolis”, operating respectively in logistics and public transport, he underlined, in the press release. Laurent Trevisani sees in the future owner of Akiem “a long-term partner“which, if the agreement is finalized without incident, must remain”a commercial partner of SNCF“. The CDPQ is well known to the SNCF, since it is a minority co-shareholder of its public transport subsidiary Keolis and of the cross-Channel company Eurostar (which has just absorbed Thalys) and has therefore already acquired Ermewa from the SNCF and DWS .

The CDPQ is also Alstom’s largest shareholder, since the acquisition of Bombardier in early 2021. Founded in 2008 to support the opening up of rail freight to competition, Akiem manages a fleet of more than 600 locomotives and 46 passenger trains, at three quarters electric. It has just created with the Banque des Territoires (Caisse des dépôts) a subsidiary specializing in leasing passenger trains to the regions, the State and rail operators. The Paris-based company employs some 250 people. In 2021, it generated a gross operating surplus (Ebidta) of 150 million euros for a turnover of 220 million.


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