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CRRC in talks to acquire Czech rolling stock manufacturer Skoda Transportation
CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive, a subsidiary of the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRRC) is in talks to acquire Czech rolling stock manufacturer Skoda Transportation.
Michael Marray 7 Dec 2016
CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive, a subsidiary of the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRRC) is in talks to acquire Czech rolling stock manufacturer Skoda Transportation.
CRRC is the biggest train manufacturer in China, and its business segments include high speed trains for the extensive Chinese rail network. Skoda Transportation specialises in trams, metro trains, and diesel locomotives. The company is headquartered in the city of Plzen. 
For its 2015 financial year Skoda Transportation has sales of 18.3 billion Czech Crowns (US$720 million). No binding agreement on the planned takeover has yet been signed.
This year CRRC set up a new European subsidiary CRRC ZELC, and in September opened a regional headquarters office in Vienna. Around the same time it announced that it has signed a deal to supply three Electrical Multiple Unit (EMU) train sets to Leo Express, a private rail company which operates on the open access Czech track network.
And as reported in BRO on November 30, CRRC has held meetings with the Danish government and national rail operator about a possible sale of trains to the Danish state railway (DSB) as part of a major upgrade of the national rail network.
Skoda and CRRC have already worked together on tram projects, including those being built by CRRC Qingdao Sifang. Skoda and CRRC have also joined together to bid for a large Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) contract for Israel Railways. There will be sixty double decker trains in total, with deliveries starting in 2019. The first round bidding deadline was September 28, and bids were received from Alstom, Bombardier Transportation, Hitachi Rail Italy, Siemens, Skoda Transportation and Stadler. 
In November Skoda Electric announced that it will build the engines for monorail vehicles for the new transportation system being put in place in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  The engines will be delivered to Scomi Engineering for assembly, under a joint development contract signed last year.
Scomi Engineering is headquartered in Malaysia, and is constructing the new Line 17 in Sao Paulo, working closely with Thales which won the signalling contract. Sao Paulo is Brazil's largest city, with a population of 21 million. 
There will be a total of 10 monorail units on Line 17. The units move automatically without a driver. Scomi Engineering has plans to build a factory in Brazil producing monorail vehicles and other equipment. 
Prague, the Czech capital, has an extensive tram network which uses the latest generation of Skoda trams. This year the company has received tram orders from Germany, Turkey, Latvia and Finland, so its acquisition would give CRRC instant market access across Europe. The takeover would be subject to regulatory approval.  
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