Vossloh in talks to buy Bom Sinal

German company Vossloh is in talks to buy the control of Bom Sinal, LRV (name given to modern trams) manufacturer from Ceará. The information was confirmed by Olivier Dereudre, director of Vossloh’s offices in Brazil and Argentina.

Headquartered in Barbalha in the backcountry of State of Ceará, Bom Sinal is the provider of the trains used in the Metro of Cariri, connecting Juazeiro do Norte to Crato, and the Metro of Maceió, which covers the stretch between the capital of Alagoas to Lourenço de Albuquerque, in the nearby city of Rio Largo.

The company also has in its portfolio trains for the Parangaba-Mucuripe branch, of Metro of Fortaleza, which will begin to run until the 2014 World Cup; for the Metro of Sobral (State of Ceará), scheduled to be concluded next year; and for Arapiraca (State of Alagoas), Macaé (State of Rio de Janeiro) and Recife (State of Pernambuco).

According to Dereudre, the sale would be the opportunity for the Brazilian company to quickly have access to new technologies and gain financial strength to invest and fight for larger projects in the country. To Vossloh, it would mean the entry in Brazil with local production and contracts in progress, at a time when it faces a decline in sales globally. Dereudre, however, does not speak in terms and values for the finalization of the deal.

New front

The landing in Brazil sounds like a good deal for the Germans, which in addition to passenger trains and freight locomotives, manufacture electric buses and railroad infrastructure equipment, such as signaling systems. Worldwide, in the aggregate from January to September, the company sold € 860 million, 15% below the same period in 2010.

In its latest quarterly report, Vossloh attributed the performance decline mainly to the break of expectation in markets of Southern Europe, such as Spain and Italy, and China. Across Europe, sales dropped 12.8% in the period, to € 614 million.

In this scenario, the Americas appear as a promise. In the year, the region accounted for only 8.3% of Vossloh sales, in a figure which mainly includes U.S. sales. Countries like Brazil are a virgin ground, with very positive prospects. Heads of entities and industry executives estimate that only the market of regional trains, in phase of project recovery, could mean contracts of US$ 856.5 million in trains, excluding civil works and signaling.

Integration

Other factors also animate Dereudre. In addition to complementary interests, the two companies adopt and develop similar technologies. Both companies manufacture diesel-electric or diesel powered LRVs for metric gauge, which could contribute to an eventual integration.

The gauge is the distance between the inner part of the rails. In Brazil, there are two common types. The Irish (wide), of 1.6 meter, used in the freight lines, and the metric, of 1 meter, which predominates in the Brazilian network and in a set of 14 stretches that the federal government intends to reactivate in the coming years to encourage regional railroad transport.

Therefore, the choice of metric pattern can become an asset, if the projects are bid including the maintenance of distance between the rails. Alstom, Bombardier and Siemens, industry leaders, do not use it. Concerned with developing train projects that can be sold to the highest possible number of markets without significant structural changes, the three major manufacturers adopt as a priority the international gauge, of 1.435 meter, the most common in Europe and the rest of the world. The fight for the projects, in this case, would be restricted to somewhat smaller competitors, like Spanish CAF and Italian Talgo. Much to the Germans’ and people of Ceará’s like.

When contacted, Bom Sinal does not return the request for an interview.

Fonte: iG