FRANCE: Following an auction, SNCF has entered into exclusive negotiations for the sale of its Ermewa transport asset leasing business to a consortium of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and a fund managed by DWS Group
Operating in 80 countries, Ermewa has 42 000 wagons, 60 000 tank containers, six workshops and 1 200 employees. It reported revenues of €489m and an EBITDA of €271m for 2020.
‘The planned sale of Ermewa is fully in line with the SNCF group’s strategy to become a world leader in sustainable mobility for passengers and goods’, explained SNCF Chairman & CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou on April 23, noting that the group would then have ‘a core rail business and two strategic assets, Keolis and Geodis’.
Farandou said the sale ‘would also accelerate the group’s debt reduction and pursue the objective of maintaining its financial trajectory, while backing Ermewa with long-term partners, able to ensure the sustainability of the company’s activity’. He anticipated that the leasing business ‘would remain a commercial partner of SNCF’.
Emmanuel Jaclot, Executive Vice-President & Head of Infrastructure at CDPQ, said Ermewa was ‘a French and European leader that is ideally positioned to leverage existing trends – including the development of rail freight and the decarbonisation of goods transportation – which are aligned with our portfolio’s carbon-intensity reduction targets. The combined experience of CDPQ and DWS in the rail sector and our long-term investing approach would enable Ermewa and its high-quality team to play an even larger role in developing the business in Europe and globally.’
The transaction would be subject to approval by the European Commission and the French government.
