The ultimate owners of Porterbrook Rail Finance Limited, one of the three major rolling stock leasing companies in the UK, entered into an agreement for the sale of their indirect interests in the company to a global investment consortium comprised of Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), Allianz Capital Partners (ACP) on behalf of certain insurance companies of the Allianz Group, EDF Invest and Hastings Funds Management.

Previous shareholders of the company include Deutsche Bank, iCON Infrastructure, Antin Infrastructure Partners and OPTrust.

All consortium members are long-term infrastructure investors with a similar investment strategy and have considerable experience in acquiring and managing infrastructure assets across the globe.

Paul Francis, the Managing Director of Porterbrook, said:

"We are delighted to welcome AIMCo, ACP, EDF Invest and Hastings as new investors to our business. Their long term approach and capital resources will position Porterbrook well to lead the next phase of growth in the rail industry."

The consortium said in a press release:

"We are excited about the opportunity to invest in Porterbrook. We understand the importance of rail infrastructure to the UK economy and we look forward to developing long-term relationships with each of the company's many stakeholders."

The transaction is expected to complete by the end of October. The value of the deal was not revealed by the parties.

• a 5-year senior term loan of £300m together with the new 15-year £250m fixed rate public bond which were used to repay existing debt due to mature in 2016;
• 5-year revolving capex and acquisition facilities totalling £600m, which along with the senior term loan are provided by a syndicate of 12 banks; and
• a new 7-year junior facility of £100m which was provided by MetLife and a number of European financial institutions.

Porterbrook owns a diverse portfolio of passenger and freight rolling stock and leases this stock to train and freight operating companies in the UK under long-term lease agreements. It owns and manages a modern fleet of approximately 5,900 passenger and freight vehicles and its portfolio represents approximately one third of Britain's passenger rolling stock fleet.

Porterbrook's investment to date in the UK rail markets totals to £2 billion in new trains and over £300 million on existing fleet refurbishment.

In early May we reported that the deal could fetch more than £2 billion for its shareholders.