John Laing Backs €800m Battery Train Deal in German Rail Leasing Push

London-based infrastructure investor John Laing has reached financial close on a roughly €800 million transaction to finance 61 Siemens Mobility battery-electric trains for regional services in north-west Germany, marking the firm's return to the country's rolling stock market and one of the largest private investments in European zero-emission rail this year.

John Laing has taken an 89 per cent equity stake alongside specialist asset manager Rock Rail, with MetLife Investment Management providing €242 million in long-term fixed-rate notes. Stifel acted as financial adviser. The Mireo Plus B units, ordered last December by Westphalia-Lippe transport authority NWL, will replace ageing diesel rolling stock on the Northern Westphalia network from late 2029.

Structured as a 30-year availability-based wet lease following a four-year delivery period, the agreement sits within a public-private partnership model that German regional authorities are increasingly using to finance the shift away from diesel without straining state balance sheets. NWL is running a parallel tender, expected to conclude this year, to appoint the operator that will run the fleet.

Once delivered, the order will form Germany's second-largest battery-electric multiple unit fleet, behind Baden-Württemberg's 75-unit Ortenau procurement from 2022. It lands as Brussels weighs a €100 billion Connecting Europe Facility envelope in the EU's 2028 to 2034 budget cycle, with rail-supply lobby UNIFE pressing for predictable long-term capital to underpin completion of the trans-European transport network. The European Commission has estimated full delivery of that network could require investment exceeding €500 billion by the end of the decade.

For Siemens, the transaction extends a strong run of German regional orders and consolidates its lead in Europe's emerging battery-train segment. For UK and continental institutional capital, it signals that German rail leasing, long dominated by state-backed lessors, is now firmly open to private investment.