FirstGroup veterans pull bus business float

Plans for a €50 million (£42m) float of a bus business headed by former FirstGroup finance director Iain Lanaghan have been pulled.

Backed by private equity firm Marwyn Management Partners, Metropolitan European Transport (MET) was seeking a flotation on London’s Alternative Investment Market (Aim) to help fund more deals in the German bus sector.

However, Marwyn said this morning that it was longer pursuing a float and it has appointed advisers with a view to bringing in private investors.

Lanaghan, who spent four years at Aberdeen-based transport firm FirstGroup before leaving in 2004, is the co-founder and chairman of MET, which has snapped up a number of German bus and coach operators since it was formed in 2011.

Lanaghan’s fellow co-founder, MET chief executive David Leeder, is also a FirstGroup veteran. He left in 2008 following a seven-year stint in which he served as managing director of its UK bus arm before becoming international development director.