Green light for school bus sale

FIRST Group shareholders have voted in favour of allowing the firm to sell its US school bus and transit divisions for £3.3bn.

Just 61.3pc of investors in the Aberdeen-based train and bus business voted in favour of the deal with 38.7pc rejecting it. Only 50pc of shareholders needed to agree to the deal for it to be approved.

Bosses sold the First Student and First Transit businesses to EQT Infrastructure more than a year after first announcing plans to quit North America following pressure from activist investors.

First Group’s largest shareholder, activist investor Coast Capital, had said it would vote against the deal, saying it undervalued the divisions. Coast wrote to First Group’s board demanding yesterday’s vote be pushed back by 60 days to allow for an independent valuation for the businesses.

But the firm held the vote, which was also criticised by its secondlargest investor Schroders.