FirstGroup strikes £3.3bn deal to sell iconic yellow school buses in US

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“The successful sale of First Student and First Transit achieved a full strategic value that looks beyond the pandemic. The transaction, now approved by a majority of shareholders, enables the Group to return £500m of value to all shareholders, address its long-standing liabilities and make a substantial contribution to the pension scheme deficits. We consistently engage on a variety of topics with all our major shareholders. We have carefully considered Coast Capital’s various outline and initial ideas for the business over time.”
Coast Capital's strident campaign against the sale of First Student, which runs US school bus services, failed earlier this year.

Train and bus operator FirstGroup has announced this morning the sale of two of its US divisions for £3.3bn to EQT Infrastructure, a year after putting the businesses up for sale.

Bosses at the firm said the cash raised from offloading First Student, the operator of famous yellow US school buses, and First Transit will be used to pay down debt, top up the group’s pension schemes and hand back cash to shareholders.

FirstGroup, which runs the Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express, alongside city centre bus routes, said £300m of the cash would be used to repay Covid-19 loans taken out during the crisis.