Press statement Akiem:

Akiem, the European leader in locomotive leasing, has acquired German company mgw Service, a major independent player in electric and diesel locomotive maintenance in Europe. The transaction covers the entire share capital of mgw Service and was signed at the end of 2016 by Antje Wallraff and Klaus Weiss, the founding partners and heads of mgw Service, and Fabien Rochefort, Chief Executive Officer of Akiem.

mgw Service provides preventive and corrective maintenance for locomotives on behalf of rail freight and passenger operators. The headquarters of the 70-strong company is based in Kassel (Hesse State). It operates mainly in Germany from its own workshop in Krefeld (North Rhine-Westphalia State) and in Sweden (Hallsberg, Orebro County), but also in Switzerland, Italy and Poland. mgw Service possesses the skills, equipment and spare-part logistics required to cover an extensive range of electric and diesel locomotives. It generated estimated 2016 revenue of close to €20 million from a broad portfolio of private and incumbent operators.

This external growth transaction is part of Akiem’s programme to accelerate its expansion in Europe and step up its investment in new locomotive fleets capable of serving from Germany to Central Europe, Sweden, the North Sea area, and Italy. This will enable Akiem to reinforce its leasing with maintenance offering. mgw Service’s current managerial team will remain in place and the company will continue to operate under the name mgw Service. The complementary leasing and maintenance activities will enable Akiem and its subsidiary, mgw Service, to expand their networks and broaden the nature and level of performance of the services they provide to European operators.

“We are extremely satisfied with this transaction, which gives mgw Service the support of a European leader like Akiem. Our company’s growth is now assured by once again expanding our European base so that we can serve all our customers with ever more dedication and commitment,” said Klaus Weiß, CEO of mgw Service.

Fabien Rochefort, CEO of Akiem, said: “For Akiem, this acquisition is a significant step forward for our expansion in Europe. Akiem is determined to support and develop mgw Service and the synergies with our leasing business. The high professional standards and quality of service offered by both Akiem and mgw Service will enable us to offer our customers new services and provide better solutions for prospective customers in Europe.”

Signed on 28 December 2016, the acquisition should come into force following the decision of the European competition authorities, which is expected for the end of the first quarter of 2017.

As of March 2016, Deutsche Asset Management (Deutsche AM) will hold a 50% stake in Akiem. At this moment, the Franch leasing copany is a 100% subsidiary of the Ermewa Group, part of SNCF.

Together with Deutsche Asset Management (Deutsche AM), Akiem wants to expand its activities in Europe, a double its fleet in the next ten years.

ES 64 F4-088 running for Captrain Italia has lost its green, outdated FN Cargo vinyls. - DSO

ES 64 F4-286 got logos of ERS Railways. - TW

EKO Trans 145-CL 001 and 002 with the latest ArcelorMittal logos.

From Fret SNCF, Akiem has now BB 27111-27180 (70 units) in its portfolio, together with BB 37001-37060, minus the crashed and scrapped 37007 (59 units).

Then, Akiem is managing several series from the former Veolia Vargo fleet. Officially they are all property of the VC Holding from Clichy. First there are nine Prima locomotives: 37506, 507, 511, 513, 515, 524, 529, 530, 531. In total Akiem has 68 triple voltage Prima's to its disposal. The other six units that were property of Veolia Cargo, eg 37501, 502, 503, 504, 505, and 509, were sold to Europorte.

Also, Akiem manages six Traxx units, property of VC Holding: 185 598, 649 and 650, and the multi system 186 184, 185 and 186. Two of these units were seen in Hennigsdorf recently. - RV/Akiem

edit: of course the Akiem fleet also includes diesel engines, but those are not represented on this website.

For the occasion, Akiem also redesigned its internet presence giving us a clear overview of all locomotives they own. It is not 100% clear which Prima units exactly are part of the Akiem clan, as numbers differ from various sources. Akiem states it owns 70 Prima EL2U units, of which we know that the 27111-27165 are among them. Then there are 68 Prima EL3U machines; All machines originally built for Fret SNCF minus the destroyed 37007 are with Akiem, plus some units formerly exploited by Veolia: we can confirm on the 37506, 37507, 37513, 37515, 37524, and 37529. Still missing some units here however.

Not mentioned on the website are three Traxx MS locomotives, that have been delivered by Bombardier to Akiem. Last week, the 186 184 and 186 left the factories in Kassel, clearly decorated with Akiem logos.

However, things get complicated... In order to keep some overview we made a list of all parts of te organisations that will change name, combined with those we are sure of that they won't. Here it is (updated 17.00 CET):

Veolia Cargo companies, taken over by Eurotunnel:

Veolia Cargo France SAS > Europorte France
Veolia Cargo Link > Europorte Link
CFTA Cargo > Europorte Proximity
Socorail > Socorail

already property of Eurotunnel:

Europorte 2 > Europorte Channel

taken over by SNCF:

Veolia Cargo Deutschland > Captrain Deutschland
Veolia Cargo Nederland > Captrain Netherlands
Veolia Cargo Belgium > to be deleted
Veolia Cargo Italia > merged into Captrain Italia
Veolia Cargo SAS > still Veolia Cargo SAS, but will be deleted
Freight Europe UK > Captrain UK
Rail4Chem disappears as brand asap

At this moment, Captrain Benelux is the name for all activities in the Netherlands and Belgium. Finally it will be merged into Captrain Netherlands.

already property of SNCF:

Fret SNCF > Fret SNCF
SNCF Fret Benelux > Captrain Belgium
SNCF Fret Deutschland > merged into Captrain Deutschland
SNCF Fret Italia > merged into Captrain Italia

VFLI France > VFLI France
VFLI Romania > Captrain Romania

ITL Eisenbahn (Dresden) > ITL Eisenbahn
ITL-Cargo > ITL-Cargo
DBV-ITL > DBV-ITL
ITL-Železniční společnost Praha > ITL-Železniční společnost Praha
ITL Polska > ITL Polska
ITL Benelux > Captrain Benelux

If there are remarks, please let us know!