The British company currently in negotiations to take over the Maltese bus service is to be sold to a German state-owned rail operator.

The European Commission yesterday gave Deutsche Bahn the green light to acquire Arriva, the company which heads the consortium that is earmarked to take over the island’s public transport system and is currently in negotiations with Transport Malta to start the long-awaited reform by March.

Arriva says it is committed to completely revamping Malta’s notorious service.

Deutsche Bahn is a multinational which has operations in 150 countries and employs about 240,000 staff, three-quarters of whom are based in Germany. Revenues last year were €29.3 billion.

The European competition regulator’s approval of the acquisition for €1.8 billion is conditional upon Deutsche Bahn’s commitment to divest Arriva Deutschland, which includes the entire rail and bus business of Arriva in Germany.

In the light of the commitments, the European Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition across Europe.

“This decision shows that the Commission is open for cross-border integration in the newly liberalised transport markets, provided that such transactions do not in any way reduce competition,” Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said. Arriva, based in the north-eastern English city of Sunderland, operates both train and bus services in Britain, employing more than 40,000 workers. It has activities in 11 other countries and had a turnover of £3.15 billion in 2009.

Transport Malta was asked to comment on the news that Arriva had been sold and say whether this would affect negotiations but no response was forthcoming by the time of going to print.