Hitachi has bought out Wiltshire-based The Railway Engineering Company (TRE) in a deal worth £25.5 million.
TRE supplies signalling training and assessment simulators and automatic routing systems both in the UK and internationally.
TRE has said all “existing activities and staff will continue to operate as usual” following the sale.
Managing director Rob Butler said: “We are very excited by the considerable opportunities this acquisition promises.
“We will continue to provide the same quality and service to our clients and look to further develop our offer as we simulate, validate and control railway signalling and operations both here in the UK and overseas.”
The company will become part of Hitachi Group, working closely within the rail and infrastructure systems business in the UK and European markets.
Kiyoshi Yamamoto, managing director of Hitachi Europe, added: “We are delighted to be announcing this new acquisition, in line with our plans to build a greater presence for Hitachi in the European Infrastructure Systems Business, including rail industry.
“Together, we seek to leverage the considerable synergies in our product areas, including simulation, control and traffic management. This acquisition helps strengthen Hitachi’s vision of creating a strong social innovation business globally.”
Following the Siemens acquisition of Invensys Rail, another high-tech UK company has sadly fallen into foreign hands. It seems that medium-sized manufacturing concerns in this country are too low in overall valuation and are therefore easy prey to the big European and overseas-based mutinationals. Hence the large number of foreign takeovers during the past number of years. Apart from the train operating companies, I can only think of Balfour Beatty as a UK company with contracts and foreign subsidiaries within the global rail industry.