French set up fund to attract foreign bidders

摘要

The French Competition Authority has established a fund to encourage new players to bid for 44 urban transport networks currently provided by Veolia Transdev. The fund will meet part or all of the bidding costs incurred by unsuccessful bidders in the tendering process between 2012 and 2016. It will be paid to local passenger transport authorities partly to meet outside consultancy costs they will incur in opening these networks up to competitive bidding and provide the authorities will the money to compensate the unsuccessful bidders. This represents a major attempt to shake up a market that, until now, has been characterised by the overwhelming dominance of French groups. The Swiss PostAuto group is one of the few foreign players to make any dent in the hold of Veolia Transdev, Keolis and RATP.