New ownership for British transport operator Arriva plc, a member of one of two consortiums shortlisted for the public transport tender, will not affect Arriva Malta's bid, the Transport Ministry told The Sunday Times.

Arriva, the UK's third largest transport operator, has agreed to be taken over by Germany's national rail company Deutsche Bahn for €1.827 billion, a statement on the London Stock Exchange confirmed on Thursday.

The Transport Ministry said that "as long as the identity of the legal person who has submitted a tender remains unchanged, a change in the shareholders' profile of any of the holding companies owning a part of the consortium does not necessarily affect a tender which has been submitted, as long as all the representations and undertakings made in the tender remain correct".

Arriva Malta has local and foreign interests, and includes 193 members of the Public Transport Association who formed Malta Land Transport plc, and the Tumas Group.

Silvan Fenech, Tumas Group's representative within Arriva Malta, said the group was aware of recent developments but added they would not affect relations within the consortium "at all".

One of Britain's top transport companies, Arriva has bus and train operations in 12 European countries.

Deutsche Bahn chief executive Rudiger Grube said on Thursday Arriva will give the German group a platform to expand in Europe and enhance its position as one of the continent's leading passenger transport groups.

French consortium Transdev Plus, the other shortlisted bidder for the public transport tender, is made up of Transdev, which runs public transport services across Europe, the Gasan Group, and CVA Technology Ltd which operates the controlled vehicle access system in Valletta.

The adjudicating process for the public transport service tender has however been stalled after one of two bidders excluded from the process filed an appeal earlier this month.

It will resume when the appeal lodged by Spanish consortium Nex Continental Holdings SLU's is eventually heard by the Public Contracts Appeals Board.

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