Lancashire authority on track in £300m Eurostar bid

LANCASHIRE County Council’s pension fund has been shortlisted ahead of international rivals in a bid to buy the Government’s £300m stake in Eurostar.

The pension fund made it on to the final list of bidders which also included Canada’s Caisse de Quebec and the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme, which has £38bn of assets to its name.

Also in the running are private equity firm 3i and Predica, part of French bank Credit Agricole.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s CIC and China’s CIC have dropped out of the process.

The Lancashire fund – which provides pensions for thousands of council workers – began talking to London’s Pensions Fund Authority before Christmas to help give them £10bn for investments.

The UK has a 40% stake in Eurostar while French rail operator SNCF has a 55% shareholding, and Belgian counterpart SNCB has 5%.

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