Chapter 901 Splitting Bombardier

Of course, there is another major problem, that is, the British government has no money!

If it follows the development of Barron's previous life, it will be delayed until 2017, not to mention 2016, and the construction of the first phase of the project will be delayed until 2017, and the progress will be very slow.

The budget of the entire high-speed rail line 2 has also increased from the initial total budget of 32.7 billion pounds to 62 billion pounds, and then to 106 billion pounds, which has been seriously overspent!

To put it bluntly, except for a small part of the budget funds that need to be invested in environmental protection and protection of cultural relics, most of them are dragged out.

Doesn't Cameron want the construction of the high-speed rail line 2 in the UK to start earlier?

Don't think that there are no "political achievement projects" in Europe and the United States. The benefits of this high-speed rail line are obvious. It can not only strengthen the circulation of personnel and logistics in the UK, but also provide a large number of jobs for the UK. This kind of infrastructure-like project can be said to be very useful for the economic recovery of the UK.

But on the one hand, because of the excessive "freedom", the voices from all sides are very noisy, and on the other hand, the most critical issue is the money issue.

Therefore, when Cameron heard that Barron was interested in taking over the project of High-speed Rail Line 2, he couldn't wait to meet him at the first time.

"Are you really going to invest in this project? You know, the budget of this project is as high as 40 billion pounds..."

Cameron did not hide it and said to Barron:

"According to the latest assessment, it is likely that the funds required will be slightly higher than this number."

"I understand that the project of High-speed Rail Line 2 is very important to Britain, and I am willing to contribute my strength to it, Mr. Prime Minister..."

Barron first reaffirmed his attitude, and then said:

"But, in the final analysis, I hope that through this project, both I and the country can gain benefits and achieve a win-win situation. Therefore, before that, you need to meet several of my requirements."

"What requirements? You can say it."

In any case, Cameron hopes to hear Barron's ideas first.

After all, with the investment in this project, I am afraid that no company in Britain can take it up-except the Duke of Devonshire in front of him.

This is why the British government considered investing in this project with national finances before this. But in reality, even if the British government has 40 billion pounds and may even add to the budget, it is not possible for them to start the project in a short time. It was originally scheduled to start construction in stages in 2016, and it is necessary to prepare for this in the government budget of previous years before this.

But if possible, Cameron certainly hopes to start this project during his term of office. After all, he himself is not sure whether he can be re-elected after the next general election.

And if this project can be started during his term of office, let alone when it can be completed and opened to traffic, at least the jobs obtained through the high-speed rail line 2 and the small and medium-sized enterprises that benefit from it are all real-this can also accumulate political achievements for his next general election.

"First of all, I need to obtain the operating company for this project..."

Barron's first requirement is that the British government needs to support him in the relevant acquisitions as much as possible. After all, Barron's current industry does not have companies in high-speed rail construction and operation.

He currently has some acquisition targets, the first of which is First Group.

FirstGroup PLC is a passenger transport company headquartered in the UK, and most of its current revenue comes from the UK.

The group has three subsidiaries, namely Greyhound, First Bus and First Rail.

Greyhound operates intercity buses in the United States and Canada; First Bus operates buses in the UK and Ireland; First Rail operates passenger trains in the UK and Ireland.

The current market value of First Group is not high, at around 500 million pounds (about 750 million US dollars), so it is not difficult for Barron.

Another one is Eversholt Railway Group, which is one of the three major railway vehicle leasing companies in the UK. It leases trains to railway passenger and freight companies under long-term contracts. It has a wide range of train types, including regional, short-distance and high-speed passenger trains, as well as freight locomotives.

The company's train fleet currently includes 3,474 passenger cars, 63 cargo boxes, and two depots.

In the original time and space, Li Chaoren's Cheung Kong Infrastructure acquired the railway group for 2.5 billion pounds two years later, but now it is expected that the transaction can be completed within 2.3 billion pounds.

Since Barron has entered the railway industry, his ambition is naturally not just the high-speed rail line 2 project, he naturally hopes to get more related high-quality companies.

Neither of these two acquisitions is too difficult, the key is the last one.

Barron hopes that the British government can support him in acquiring Bombardier through Alstom.

Specifically, Barron will acquire Bombardier and then split it - Bombardier's main businesses are currently aviation and railway businesses.

Many people may only have the impression of Bombardier of its business aircraft, but in fact, Bombardier Rail is also a technological leader in the fields of ultra-high-speed railways and rail trains.

If Alstom can merge Bombardier's railway business, it will surpass Siemens in scale and become the world's largest rail giant!

Of course, Alstom will be able to hold this number one position for less than a year...

Because when China's CSR and CNR merge into CRRC next year, they will take away the number one position from Alstom.

Currently, Bombardier's total market value is around US$20 billion. According to Barron's plan, after acquiring Bombardier, it will spin off its railway business and merge it with Alstom, leaving only its aviation business.

In fact, Bombardier's situation has not been good in recent years because its investment in research and development of the C-series commercial aircraft has been too high. In addition, due to the economic crisis, both its railway business and business jet business have been far less profitable than before. As of now, , Bombardier's foreign debt has exceeded 9 billion US dollars, and its financial situation is in crisis.

In Barron's previous life, Bombardier's C-series suffered from problems such as overspending on research and development costs and the "big stick" used by the United States to restrict its sales, causing Bombardier to fall into financial crisis.

Finally, in 2017, Airbus acquired 50.01% of the C Series shares for US$1 and renamed it A220, while Bombardier retained only 31% of the shares.

In order to cope with the financial crisis, it had to sell the Dash8 and CRJ regional passenger jet projects in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

At the same time, Bombardier's railway business also maintained losses in the following years...

The only thing that can make a profit is that it is affected by the global economic recovery. Its business jet sales are not bad, but the global economic recovery has just begun.

Therefore, Barron's acquisition will basically not encounter too many difficulties for Bombardier. The only thing that needs to be resolved is the EU's antitrust investigation.

The EU's antitrust agencies are very cautious in reviewing mergers between "giants" that already have high market shares.

In the original time and space, when Alstom later acquired Bombardier's railway business, the condition in exchange for the EU's approval of the agreement was——

Alstom needs to sell some of its factories. This includes the sale of its plant in Reichsofen, eastern France, as well as the sale of its Coradia Polyvalent series of EMUs and the divestiture of Bombardier's commuter train unit and associated production facilities at its Hennigsdorf plant in Germany.

Barron naturally does not want to "dismember" Bombardier's railway business so much, so Britain will need to come forward to convince the EU - and France, where Alstom is located, will also lobby for this.

At this moment when the EU needs internal unity, and Britain and France are trying to protect Alstom at the same time, there is still a high possibility that the EU antitrust agency will let it go.