DB and SNCF to end cross-shareholding in rail freight units

DB Schenker will acquire SNCF Geodis’s 20% stake in Spanish operator Transfesa – whose core business is in the rail freight of auto parts and finished vehicles – increasing its holding to 75%.

In exchange, the French group will recover DB Schenker’s 10% stake in STVA, which specialises in logistics solutions for finished vehicles, of which it already has majority control.

Reports suggest the end of the cross-shareholding reflects tension between the French and German railway operators, which focus on DB’s claim that SNCF has consistenly put obstacles in its way as it seeks to gain a foothold in France’s rail market.

But SNCF Geodis’s Financial Director, Olivier Storch, rejected this interpretation of events. He said, “As soon as DB took a majority stake in Transfesa in 2007, it no longer made business sense for SNCF Geodis to remain a shareholder, and, by the same token, for DB to keep its stake in STVA.

“In no way does the end of cross-shareholdings point to strained relations between DB nd SNCF.”

Storch said he expected SNCF Geodis and DB Schenker to maintain commercial relations via Transfera and STVA, despite the end of the joint holdings.

It is understood that each of the shareholdings has an estimated value of roughly €24 million (US$29.3m), but Storch declined to comment.

Separately, SNCF Geodis is on the point of increasing its stake in road-rail operator Lorry Rail from 12.5% to more than 50% by buying the shares held by public investment group Caisse des Dépôts and French construction firm Vinci.

Lorry Rail launched a scheduled service for unaccompanied semi-trailers between Luxembourg and Perpignan, in south-west France, in March 2007 and currently operates five weekly round-trips on the route.

“Taking majority control of Lorry Rail is an important step in SNCF Geodis developing a network of rail motorway services in France and in Europe,” Storch said.

SNCF Geodis is planning a “rail motorway” between the Aquitaine region of south-west France and Nord Pas de Calais, in the north of the country, and has tendered an offer to the Swiss Federal Office of Transport to operate a service for accompanied and unaccompanied containers and swapbodies between Fribourg, in Switzerland, and Navarre, in northern Spain, via Italy, he revealed.