Greenbrier, Astra Rail To Merge Europe Operations To Form Greenbrier-Astra Rail

(RTTNews) - Greenbrier Companies, Inc. (GBX), a supplier of transportation equipment and services to the railroad industry, and Astra Rail Management GmbH announced Thursday plans to form a new company, Greenbrier-Astra Rail. The new company will create an end-to-end, Europe-based freight railcar manufacturing, engineering and repair business.

Greenbrier's European operations headquartered in Swidnica, Poland will be combined with Astra Rail based in Germany and Arad, Romania.

Greenbrier-Astra Rail will be controlled by Greenbrier with an approximate 75% interest. Astra Rail's Chairman Thomas Manns will own the remainder of the new company.

Greenbrier expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings per share by the end of fiscal year 2017.

As partial consideration for its majority interest, Greenbrier will pay Astra Rail 30 million euros at closing and 30 million euros 12 months after closing.

Greenbrier-Astra Rail will be headquartered in the Netherlands and will have principal operations in Poland and Romania. The new company will have nearly 4,000 employees and 6 production and repair facilities across Europe.

Manns will also become Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Greenbrier-Astra Rail and will lead the new company's commercial operations, working closely with its Management Board and Jim Cowan, President of Greenbrier International.

Bernd Böse, CEO of Astra Rail, will become CEO and President, and Bogdan Lesnianski, CFO and the head of Greenbrier's Wagony Swidnica operations, will become CFO.

Closing of the transaction is contingent on, among other conditions, achieving antitrust approval in certain EU countries.