ON JANUARY 11 Adtranz announced that it had agreed to sell its Freight Wagon Division to The Greenbrier Companies of the USA. Under a transaction expected to be completed within 30 days, Greenbrier will acquire ’a comprehensive portfolio’ of wagon designs approved for European operation. The order book is worth DM155m, according to Adtranz, which says that the division has 25% of the German wagon market.

The Siegen-based engineering, design, sales & marketing office will become the technical centre for Greenbrier’s European operations. A portion of the Adtranz order backlog will be transferred to Wagony Swidnica in Poland, in which Greenbrier has a majority interest (RBR99 p17).

Greenbrier has also agreed to co-operate with the Adtranz Customer Support Division in wagon maintenance, and Adtranz will expand its existing relationship with Greenbrier as a component supplier. ’Adtranz will focus its energies on the design and production of passenger trains and locomotives’, said President & CEO Rolf Eckrodt. ’With Greenbrier we have found the ideal partner to offer exciting employment opportunities for our people and to exploit our innovative designs in combination with world-class low-cost manufacturing’.

  • TTI System GmbH of Hannover has acquired the Adtranz revenue collection business, subject to approval from Germany’s competition authorities. The sale is backdated to October 1999.

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