Recliner wrote:
Graeme Wall wrote:
Talk of spinning off First Bus and reviewing First Rail to concentrate
on North America.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48456840?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk&link_location=live-reporting-story

More in
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/interview-firstgroups-matthew-gregory-lgwzm60c2?shareToken=af3295821a3c1733562dee77a9a7c 2b1


Extracts:

A rump of troublesome UK rail franchises will be run down over time —
unless Gregory can persuade the government to renegotiate their terms.

…

Born in the late 1980s as an Aberdeen bus company, it swelled to become a
vast public transport operator. Its $3.5bn 2007 top-of-the-market deal for
rival Laidlaw made it a serious player in America, propelling it into the
FTSE 100 for a brief spell. But that also left it as a collection of
disparate businesses, laden with debt and bound together with flimsy
strategic logic. A series of profit warnings, a botched bid for the West
Coast rail franchise and a £615m rescue rights issue all followed.

Recent history has been similarly dismal. Last year it wrote off £106m on
its TransPennine franchise after overbidding for the contract. Last month,
it set aside a further £102m on its South Western Railway contract. The
only bright spot in rail is its Great Western franchise, which it has held
since the Paddington to Swansea line was privatised in 1996.

Given its woes on the railways, why persist with its bid for the West Coast
Partnership, the route that will eventually include the High Speed 2 line?
Gregory squirms and says he wants to see the outcome of a rail review: “We
hope that will set us up with a franchising system everybody is happy
with.”


And:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rail-giant-firstgroup-may-sue-chris-grayling-r0bnl8l0v?shareToken=837227cf35158c5bfe5eaf151f73c 0a5