On 14 December 2021, Stagecoach and National Express announced that they had agreed a £1.9bn merger, but behind the scenes of this mega transaction, Stagecoach had agreed to divest part of its businesses and shares in Scottish Citylink Coaches Limited to companies within the ComfortDelGro group in order to address any potential competition issues.

Teacher Stern advised Scottish Citylink Coaches Limited on its acquisition of the marketing, retail and customer service activities of the Megabus and Falcon businesses and Braddell Limited on its purchase of the shares in Scottish Citylink (of which it already held a 65% interest). The Teacher Stern team saw Kelly Whitfield behind the wheel assisted by Martine Nathan, Andy Hughes, Jenna Grabiner and Reem Kar (Corporate) alongside Uzma Rabi, Neha Solanki and James Wareing (Employment) and Fatima Abdallah (Property).

The Citylink/Megabus/Falcon transaction, worth £8.75m, is due to complete on 28 February 2022 and the Teacher Stern team will continue to assist Citylink and Braddell to achieve this target.

The Megabus business markets and retails inter-city coach services in England and Wales and Falcon has specific focus in the the South-West. On completion, Citylink/Braddell will become the UK’s second largest coach operator who are on route to increasing their intercity coaches from 100 to 150. Stagecoach will continue to provide operational services to the coach services for Citylink/Braddell post-completion.

Kelly Whitfield, Lead Partner on the Transaction, Teacher Stern: We are delighted for the team at Citylink and Braddell on this exciting opportunity to expand their operations across the UK.  It is always a pleasure to work with them, in particular CEO, Sean O’Shea and CFO, Ishai Novick.  Our task was greatly assisted by the co-operation and collaboration of the team at Herbert Smith Freehills (lead by Robert Moore and Harriet Forrest) who were acting for Stagecoach.  The team at Teacher Stern worked tirelessly to deliver exchange of contracts in a very short space of time.  This transaction demonstrates the high level of expertise at Teacher Stern and our commitment to working as a team to deliver the very best results for our clients.

Now that the wheels are in motion, Teacher Stern hopes that these deals on the bus reach completion early next year!