Would buying Go Ahead be a good choice to gain entry to UK market?

The received wisdom is that it takes around five years from setting up an office in a new country to achieve a sizeable operation through bidding for contracts and forming joint ventures with local operators. It is a painstaking approach that Arriva adopted with great success in expanding throughout Europe prior to its acquisition by Deutsche Bahn.

An alternative approach is to take the short cut of a major acquisition. For companies with deep pockets, this can pay dividends if the right...