IEP gets a boost

[upnorth71]

GLOBAL insurance provider MetLife Inc. is taking a minority stake in the Hitachi-led consortium that is to produce a new fleet of trains under the Intercity Express Programme at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

MetLife Private Capital Investors group announced it is acquiring an interest in Agility Trains West Ltd., a consortium consisting of Hitachi Rail Europe and John Laing Investments.

Explaining its decision, MetLife Inc. said in a statement issued to the London and New York Stock Exchanges: “Agility Trains West represents the first phase of the UK Department for Transport’s Intercity Express Programme, a project worth an estimated £4.5 billion, consisting of the delivery of new trains, maintenance depots, and route upgrades, with Network Rail undertaking the infrastructure upgrades to allow the new trains to operate on the network. The portion of the contract for Agility Trains West is estimated at £2.4 billion.”

http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2013/04/04-metlife-inc-joins-iep-consortium.html

 

[WatcherZero]

Remember when ROSCOS were all owned by banks because they were nice steady investments? seems the markets turned and the long term safe investors want a piece of the action again.

 

[billio]

The cost of undoing this knot could easily dwarf that of the West Coast franchise debacle.

 

[anthony263]

The cost of undoing this knot could easily dwarf that of the West Coast franchise debacle.

now but with the east coast order in some doubt I wouldnt be surprised to see the units built in Japan especially if they can be built more quickly for when they enter servicce in 2017.

Seriously though I would like to hope that the high cost of cancelling IEP would still be cheaper in the long term than going ahead with this stupid pfi deal which is one reason why the cost of these new trains is so high