U.S. equity fund buys Italy HSR operator

Written by Keith Barrow, Senior Editor, International Railway Journal
Italo/NTV high speed rail

An Italo/NTV train seen at Santa Lucia Station, Venice in March, 2013. Photo: Peter Broster via Wikipedia

Can't find open access high-speed rail in the United States? One American investor looked to Europe to make a deal.

The European Commission (EC) has approved the acquisition of Italian open-access high-speed operator Italo-NTV by the US-based Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) III equity fund.

The Commission says it has concluded that the proposed acquisition would not raise any competition concerns because the companies are not active in the same market or in vertically-related markets.

Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori is Europe’s first private open access operator of 300 km/h high-speed trains.

GIP’s €1.94-billion bid for the entire share capital of Italo-NTV was accepted by the Italian company’s shareholders in February.

Global Infrastructure Partners has more than $40 billion under management. The companies in its portfolio have combined annual revenues of more than $5 billion and employ around 21,000 people. In the transport sector, GIP owns Gatwick and Edinburgh airports in Britain, the Port of Melbourne and Australian rail freight operator Pacific National.

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