Type
Merger/Acquisition
Country
France
Region
Location of affected unit(s)
Sector
Transportation / Storage
Land, Water And Air Transportation
Land Transport And Transport Via Pipelines
49.31 - Urban and suburban passenger land transport

102 jobs
Number of planned job losses
Job loss
108 jobs
Number of planned job creations
Job creation
Announcement Date
12 November 2018
Employment effect (start)
1 January 2019
Foreseen end date
30 June 2018

Description

The management of Ouibus, a long-distance buses subsidiary of the national railway company SNCF that is going to be taken over by Blablacar, has announced an employment safeguard plan to cut 102 positions on a total workforce of 230 employees. The European leader in carpooling Blablacar has entered into exclusive negotiations with SNCF for the acquisition of 100% of Ouibus. BlablaCar will acquire all the assets and management of SNCF's long-distance bus service, which has been in a serious deficit since its creation. Ouibus lost €35 million in 2017 and is expected to report another loss this year that could be around €25 million.

The staff, mainly drivers, should be reemployed within the SNCF group and its subsidiaries, according to the management. But the unions point out that the wages proposed as part of the deal to reemployed employees would be well below the current level. Employees could therefore refuse reclassification and be dismissed.


Sources

Citation

Eurofound (2018), Ouibus, Merger/Acquisition in France, factsheet number 95861, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/95861.