Policy paper

Expressions of interest for UK holding in Eurostar

The government has invited expressions of interest from bidders for the UK government’s 40% shareholding in Eurostar International Limited.

From:
HM Treasury and The Rt Hon George Osborne
Published
13 October 2014
This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Documents

Pre-qualification letter and summary briefing document

PDF, 632 KB, 14 pages

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Details

This document contains information about Eurostar and the information needed to register interest in the process for potential bidders.

The Autumn Statement 2013 and National Infrastructure Plan 2013 set out the government’s ambition to achieve £20 billion from corporate and financial asset sales by 2020. Having identified the government’s stake in Eurostar as a possible candidate for sale, the government has now started the sale process:

  • any parties interested in purchasing the stake are now invited to come forward, with a deadline of 31 October to respond
  • the government’s key objective in a potential sale will be to maximise value for money for the UK taxpayer
  • subject to achieving value for money, we would expect to reach definitive agreements in the first quarter of 2015

Eurostar is Europe’s leading international high speed rail operator. Since services began in 1994, Eurostar has carried over 145 million passengers, with over 10 million in 2013 alone, whilst sustaining traffic growth every year for the last decade.

Following the incorporation of Eurostar into its current form in 2010 Eurostar has continued to be highly successful; attracting record passenger numbers, launching new destinations and ordering a new fleet of state of the art trains.

This document comprises the pre-qualification letter necessary to take part in the process and information about Eurostar for potential bidders. The deadline for interested parties to respond to the pre-qualification letter is 12pm on Friday 31 October 2014.

Published 13 October 2014