THE planned part-privatisation of German state railway’s Deutsche Bahn Mobility and Logistics (DBML) — owner of British train operators EWS and Laing Rail, which operates the Chiltern franchise and the London Overground concession in a joint venture with MTR —  may be postponed because of the world financial crisis.

Deutsche Bahn had set 27 October as the first day of trading for shares in its passenger transport, logistics and service business unit.

But German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has now said: “At some point, one has to consider whether now is the right time [to proceed with the sale].”

The Financial Times reports that the present financial turmoil has brought to a head a disagreement between the German government and the banks acting as global co-ordinators — Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS — about the valuation of DBML.

The German government had hoped to raise raise €5bn-€6bn (£3.9bn-£4.7bn) from the flotation of 24.9 per cent of the operator, but according to The Financial Times the banks have been pushing the government to consider a price of below €5bn.

Observers in Germany have said that the Finance Minister has now voiced publicly what his officials had been saying privately for weeks — if the banks could not guarantee the kind of sum Berlin expected, Germany's largest privatisation in eight years would be postponed.