A consortium comprising Dalmore Capital and Equitix Investment Management has signed agreements to acquire a 33.33 percent stake in Cross London Trains Holdco 2 Limited (XLT) from 3i Infrastructure Plc (3i).
XLT was established in 2011 to finance, own and maintain 115 Siemens Desiro City Class 700 trains for the Thameslink passenger rail franchise.
XLT is a single rolling stock fleets in the United Kingdom. It is part of the wider £7 billion ($9 billion) government-funded infrastructure upgrade to provide essential congestion relief to London and the South East and significant additional capacity to support anticipated passenger growth.
XLT is in the final stages of acceptance with 1,140 carriage units in operation on the Thameslink corridor (connecting Kings Cross, St. Pancras International, Blackfriars, London Bridge, Gatwick and Luton Airports and key commuter sections such as Sussex, Kent, Peterborough, and Cambridge). The Class 700 fleet is expected to set new reliability standards for performance and add capacity for 60,000 additional peak passengers with trains running every 2-3 minutes through the center of London.
Given the importance of the project for the network, the revenue is based on a lease structure benefiting from a Section 54. Undertaking from the Department for Transport for the first 20 years, with full ownership of the trains being retained at the end of this initial period. This acquisition complements recent strategic acquisitions made by Dalmore and Equitix in the U.K. rail sector.
