German state railway Deutsche Bahn (DB) has moved a step closer to selling Arriva in a bid to plug a multi-million financial gap. The DB supervisory board has instructed managers to look into various options for disposing of Arriva, including selling the entire business or parts of it and floating the company on the stock exchange. A final decision is expected in September.
Sunderland-based Arriva operates buses and trains in 14 countries and employs more than 50,000 staff. The worth of the business has been put at between €3.5billion and €4billion (£3.1billion and £3.54billion). DB says turnover in 2018 was €5.44billion (£4.67billion).