Investment firm KKR announced that it will support the development of European Locomotive Leasing (ELL), a provider of full-service locomotive leasing solutions to freight and passenger operators throughout continental Europe.

ELL is led by a team of highly experienced rail professionals based in Austria and Germany. The company announced signing a framework contract for the order of as many as 50 state-of-the-art Siemens Vectron locomotives. The first locomotives are bindingly ordered today and will be delivered immediately. The additional locomotives will be delivered from 2014 through 2016 and will allow ELL to satisfy the demand from its expanding customer base.

The locomotive leasing sector in Europe benefits from highly attractive market dynamics that ELL is well placed to capitalize on. These include rail traffic liberalization and promotion across the continent, the growing prominence of private rail operators more likely to favor leasing rather than owning locomotives, and an improving macroeconomic outlook.
Johannes Huth, head of KKR Europe, said: “We view the full-service locomotive leasing market as attractive to a new entrant with the right long-term capital structure, management team and fleet of high-performance and environmentally friendly locomotives. We look forward to partnering with the ELL management team to support the development of an infrastructure area that is critical for the growth of the continental European economy.”

European Locomotive Leasing (Vienna, Austria and Munich, Germany) is a rolling stock company that purchases locomotives – the railway vehicles that provide the motive power for trains – and leases them to freight and passenger operators throughout continental Europe.