Mobico Group PLC, the British owner of National Express coaches and Spanish bus operator ALSA, agreed to be taken private by a Spanish group controlled by its largest shareholder, ending a run as a listed company weighed down by debt.
Autobuses de Leon, through a newly formed bidding company, will pay 46 pence a share in cash. That values Mobico’s equity at about 308 million pounds, while the implied enterprise value, which counts the company’s borrowings, is about 2.32 billion pounds. The price is roughly 55% above where the stock closed on Oct. 20, the day before the offer period began, and about 93% above its level in early August, before the buyer’s first approach.
A family returns to control
The bidder is owned 50.1% by CMC Group, the family office of Spain’s Cosmen family, and 49.9% by a fund managed by infrastructure investor Asterion Industrial Partners. The Cosmen family became Mobico’s biggest holder when National Express bought ALSA in 2005 and owns about 26% of the shares today. Its first proposal, at 38 pence a share, arrived in August; the board opened its books after the price was raised.
Mobico’s independent directors said they would recommend the deal. Their reasoning centered on the balance sheet: net debt stood at about 1.13 billion pounds at the end of March, leverage under its loan covenants was well above the company’s own target, and roughly 230 million pounds of U.S. private placement notes fall due in mid-2027. The board said a standalone fix would require a broad refinancing in uncertain markets, while the cash offer provides a certain outcome.
Financing and next steps
The buyer is funding the purchase with cash and an interim bank facility, with longer-term commitments from Santander, CaixaBank and MUFG. It plans to eventually refinance Mobico’s senior debt with an infrastructure-style package of bank loans and private placement notes, and intends to combine Mobico with its bus concessions in Malta and Cyprus. It said it does not plan material job cuts beyond the removal of public-company roles.
The deal will be carried out through a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement that needs the backing of holders of 75% in value of the shares voted at a court meeting, from which the Cosmen family’s shares are excluded. Completion is expected in the first half of 2027. Mobico is the latest in a string of London-listed companies to agree to foreign takeovers this year.
