Portsmouth Ferries

Condor Ferries, which are the Channel Islands ferry operator, have been put up for sale by the Royal Bank of Scotland and have been put up for a price of around £300m. RBS have appointed Deutsche Bank to sell the company, which runs catamarans from Poole and Weymouth and conventional ferries from Portsmouth.

The Deutsche are working on something like a memorandum for prospective bidders. RBS’s debt ventures arm bought Condor ABN Amro Capital on the date of September 2004 in a big deal of £240m deal.

While RBS doesn’t break out in Condor’s results, it is thought to have earnings before the interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £25m-£30m a year. Condor might have a competition on the Channel Islands-France routes.

A new rival called HD Ferries, began services to St Malo last March but suspended them in November after some technical problems which are were being resolved. HD has said it will resume in March.The likely bidders include Australian bank Macquarie, owner of Isle of Man Steam Packet, Wightlink and the Pru’s Infracapital arm, owner of Red Funnel, Wightlink’s rival.

Babcock & Brown, which have a stake in the Forth Ports, and JP Morgan’s infrastructure fund may also bid on this.

RBS is selling several allot of assets which are including rail leasing firm Angel, after its £49bn acquisition of Dutch bank ABN Amro.