Balfour Beatty has greatly strengthened its position in the international rail engineering market with the acquisition of Adtranz’s rail electrification and traction power supply business.
The Euro153M ($178M) purchase boosts Balfour Beatty’s world-wide rail infrastructure system business to a £600M ($844M) per year turnover.UK firm Balfour Beatty says that the Adtranz acquisition provides an excellent geographical and technological fit for the group including a major presence in Germany (where substantial tax losses are available), Sweden, Spain and Austria.
Current project work or permanent businesses also cover Turkey, China, Malaysia, South America and the UK.
Balfour Beatty already has links with Adtranz including both being members of the Metronet consortium bidding for a London Underground Private Public Partnership, hoping to be on the shortlist for two contracts.
Adtranz was owned by DaimlerChrysler for which it is a non-core business, which has lost money until recently. Bombardier of Canada has already bought the rolling stock business.
