We are at a historical turning point. The European rail sector, which still accounts for half of all rolling stock investment worldwide, is in full deregulation.
Deregulation began in the United Kingdom 15 years ago, followed by Germany 10 years ago, and is now in full swing in every country and segment of the market (freight, regional passenger, high-speed, etc.).
Past operators face threats on their domestic markets and must simultaneously transform themselves and look for markets abroad.

Furthermore, private financing requirements for rolling stock are enormous:

• ageing rolling stock must be replaced,
• over-indebted public operators now want to be given the option not to own the rolling stock they operate, and
• alternative operators prefer to concentrate on operation.
   

We launched the activity in Europe in 2005 (two years earlier in the United States). We started with the principle that no two rail financing structures were identical, which meant that our priority was to develop a team that was both expert in the rail sector and also had a highly varied banking profile. This means that people from the rail industry work with professionals in project financing, securitisation, aircraft financing and LBOA leveraged buy-out is the acquisition of all a company's shares financed largely by the borrowed funds.s.

Our mission: to offer our clients all the Bank’s products and pool our expertise to assemble tailored, innovative solutions for this constantly changing market.
In geographic terms, our organisation means that we are close to our clients: four people work in New York and eight in Europe deployed between Paris, Frankfurt and Milan.

To give you a few examples of how diverse our operations are:

• asset financing: in July we were the leading and global agent to finance ten new high-speed trains for Eurostar,
• advisory: this year we have been the M&A advisor for Westbahn, an Austrian start-up in the sale of 26% of its capital to SNCF. In April, we advised AIG in the financing of its rail subsidiary in the United States,
• capital markets: in June the Bank served as the bookrunner in a bond issue for the British leasing company Porterbrook.

Information is the key for all the market players, regardless of whether they are public or private, manufacturers, leasing companies or banks. On a market where everything has yet to be developed or even devised, we must ensure that we are truly close to each client to understand its vision and offer the best possible advice.

Financing involves many technical and financial criteria: the liquidity of the rolling stock, the client’s business model, the legal and fiscal framework of the country concerned, etc. We can discuss some aspects, in particular the legal ones, with our colleagues from aircraft financing because there are similarities. In other factors, we work jointly with project financing teams when the risk analysis is similar.
The advisory role is essential, especially in this sector.