Rival renews National Express bid

Stagecoach withdrew a bid for National Express in September

Stagecoach has made a fresh offer to buy rival National Express, despite a consortium pulling out of takeover talks last week.

The group, comprising private equity firm CVC Capital and National Express's largest shareholder, the Cosmen family, withdrew its £765m offer on Friday.

Perth-based Stagecoach had agreed to buy National Express's bus and rail operations if a deal went through.

But now it has made a new all-share offer for its rival.

Stagecoach, which operates South West Trains and East Midlands Trains, had previously ruled itself out of bidding alone for National Express, after withdrawing from talks in September.

Fundraising plans

National Express confirmed that it had received a "highly preliminary" all-share offer from Stagecoach, and was considering it.

But it added that it wanted to push ahead this year with plans to issue new shares to shore up its finances.

The offer from Stagecoach would leave National Express shareholders owning no more than 40% of the enlarged group, National Express said.

Shares in National Express rose 10.5% in Monday trading to 400p.

They had fallen 23% on Friday after the CVC-Cosmen consortium withdrew its offer.