Chunnel rail firm looks at £6bn break-up to foil takeover

The Sunday Times (London) ^ | February 19th, 2006 | Tracey Boles

[kingu]

THE Channel tunnel rail-link builder London and Continental Railways (LCR) is exploring a £6 billion break-up plan to thwart a takeover approach from Sir Adrian Montague.

Rob Holden, chairman of LCR, and his adviser UBS have been working on Project Blueprint, which involves splitting the company into three units and selling them independently.

Holden has made a presentation to government saying this is a better way of realising value than accepting an “opportunistic bid” from Montague, the well-connected chairman of British Energy and Friends Provident.

Holden said: “We are looking at the disaggregation of the three units in the belief that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. The business lends itself to being split up.”

The standalone units consist of Eurostar UK, a train service that LCR owns and operates; an infrastructure fund for the £5.2 billion high-speed railway; and LCR’s huge land bank. The latter includes a prized 120-acre site at Stratford, which is being used as the centrepiece for the 2012 Olympics. The other two sites are at King’s Cross in London and at Ebbsfleet in Kent. Combined, these sites could accommodate at least 10,500 new homes and some 25m sq ft of commercial space.

[kingu]

A related story about debt for the Chunnel itself.

[NonValueAdded]

Liquidate the company and blow the chunnel. Don't they know France is at the other end of it? Nothing good can come of that. _{</joking=50%>}

[kingu]

The land for housing and shops probably exceeds the value of the Chunnel itself, it planned right and completed well before the Olympics.