Court of Appeal Hearing re. GMCA

RNS

25 July 2022

Rotala Plc

("Rotala", the "Company" or the "Group")

Court of Appeal Hearing re Greater Manchester Combined Authority

On 26 March 2021, the Company announced that the Mayor of Greater Manchester (the "Mayor") had made the formal decision to franchise the bus market in the Greater Manchester region. The Company made an immediate claim to the High Court of Manchester to judicially review a number of aspects of the consultation process carried out by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority ("GMCA"') which led to the decision of the Mayor to franchise the bus network.

As previously announced, on 9 March 2022, Mr Justice Julian Knowles rejected these arguments, dismissed the claim and refused to give leave to appeal. The Company applied to seek permission to appeal the decision to the Court of Appeal and was granted leave to appeal. The appeal hearing took place on 12 July 2022. Today the Court of Appeal released its judgement: it dismissed the Company's appeal. The Company has considered the Court of Appeal's judgment in its claim against GMCA and the Mayor and, whilst disappointed with the result, it respects the decision of the Court and has resolved to take no further steps in this legal process.

GMCA has already announced mechanisms which cover the acquisition of bus depots and bus fleets under its franchising proposals. The Board has reviewed these mechanisms and is confident that, should it decide to place the Bolton depot and its associated bus fleet assets under these mechanisms, the values which would be realised from the sale of Bolton depot and its related bus fleet should meet or exceed their respective book values. These amounts should also be more than sufficient to pay off the existing mortgage on the Bolton depot and the hire purchase debt associated with the bus assets based there. As a result, the sale of these assets to GMCA, should it take place, would have no negative effect on the Group's balance sheet and its leverage would fall to very low levels. The capital which the Group currently has invested in its Bolton operation would therefore be realised into cash and be available for re-investment or redeployment elsewhere in the Group.

About the business

Rotala provides a range of transport solutions, ranging from local bus services under contract to local authorities, through to commercial bus routes. Rotala has operations at Heathrow Airport, in the West Midlands and in the North West. Operating companies are Diamond Bus Ltd, Diamond Bus (North West) Ltd, Hallmark Connections Ltd and Preston Bus Ltd.