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Wales & Borders

Commercial and Contract Management of the new-built rolling stock for Transport for Wales which is owned by a consortium of SMBC Leasing and Equitix
  • Client's profile
    SMBC Leasing (UK) Limited is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. It offers lease, loan, hire purchase and receivables purchase finance to a global customer base. Equitix is a leading global investor, developer, and long-term fund manager of core infrastructure assets.
After initially acting as commercial advisor to Equitix in the bid stage of the Wales and Border Franchise (which transferred into public ownership in 2021), Apex Rail is currently acting as Commercial and Contract Manager to the SPV’s owning the four different Wales & Borders fleets. These SPV’s are jointly owned by SMBC Leasing and Equitix.

SMBC Leasing and Equitix have invested approximately £800m into four new fleets of rolling stock consisting of:
  • Class 197 CAF Civity DMU;
  • Class 398 Battery-Electric Stadler CITYLINK Tram-Trains;
  • Class 231 Stadler FLIRT DEMU; and
  • Class 756 Stadler FLIRT Trimode.

As part of its role Apex Rail reports regularly to the board of directors of the SPV’s and its lenders on the commercial and contractual status of the project. It further participates in discussions on contractual and commercial matters together with the technical advisors, the joint project manager and the manufacturer’s project teams.
* The images is copyrighted by TfW
Bart van Horssen
Associate Director