Go-ahead Regulatory News (GOG)

Press Release

19 March 2012

Go-Ahead Group acquires Northumberland Park Bus Depot

The Go-Ahead Group plc is pleased to announce the acquisition of First London East's Northumberland Park bus depot in Tottenham, north east London for a gross cash consideration of £14.0m. The transaction will be completed on 30 March 2012.

The acquisition increases Go-Ahead's share of the London bus market from 22% to 23%.

The business has around 400 employees and a fleet of 130 buses. It operates 13 Transport for London contracts including route 67 from Wood Green to Aldgate, route 476 Euston to Northumberland Park and a number of school contracts. The annual turnover of the business is around £24.5m.

Northumberland Park will complement Go-Ahead's existing Docklands Buses and Blue Triangle operations based in Silvertown and Rainham respectively.

David Brown, Group Chief Executive for Go-Ahead said: "We have great confidence in the London bus market and our management team in London and this acquisition provides the opportunity to operate in a new area of the capital. Northumberland Park is located near both Tottenham Hale and White Hart Lane, where regeneration is either planned or already underway.

"We look forward to working with the Northumberland Park team to build on their success to date and to continue to deliver a good service to passengers in this area of London on behalf of Transport for London."

Northumberland Park will become part of Go-Ahead London, under the leadership of Managing Director John Trayner.

For further information, please contact:

GO-AHEAD

Go-Ahead is a leading UK public transport operator, providing high quality services in the bus and rail sectors. Employing around 22,000 people across the country, over one billion passenger journeys are undertaken on our services each year.  We are committed to operating our companies in a safe, socially and environmentally responsible way and are proud to have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard after taking action on climate change.  In addition to the travelling public, our customers include the Department for Transport, Transport for London (TfL) and local authorities. www.go-ahead.com

BUS

Go-Ahead is one of the UK's largest bus operators.  With a fleet of around 3,900 buses, we carry, on average, around 1.7 million passengers every day.  Our operations are focused on high density commuter markets. We have a strong presence in London, with around 22% market share, where we provide regulated services for TfL.  We operate deregulated services in Oxford, East Anglia, the South East, Southern and North East England.  We also have a yellow school bus joint venture in North America.

RAIL

Our rail division operates the Southern (including Gatwick Express), Southeastern and London Midland franchises through our 65% owned subsidiary Govia. It is the busiest rail operation in the UK, responsible for nearly 30% of all UK passenger rail journeys. In December 2009, Southeastern began operating the UK's first high speed domestic rail service between Kent and London, significantly reducing journey times.