Citi and UBS to advise on sales

Investment banks Citi and UBS will be retained as advisers to the Government and London & Continental Railways (LCR), when the Channel Tunnel rail link is sold next year.

The move is part of the Government's proposed £16bn of asset sales, which also include the Tote and the Dartford Crossing.

Citi and UBS have been working for the Department for Transport and LCR respectively on the reorganisation and break-up of the business, which also includes property around St Pancras International station in London. The Government in effect nationalised LCR, which built the rail link, this summer.

An industry source said that the advisers' recent experiences on LCR made them the only sensible choices to lead the sale.

"It would be utterly ridiculous to have anyone other than UBS and Citi working on the sell-off," he said. "The restructuring isn't finished yet, and that has been incredibly complicated."

The rail link is now known as High Speed 1.