Lehman Brothers and UBS Warburg have hammered out two disposals by Railtrack, the UK rail operator, that should mean shareholders in the company recover 250p a share from their investment.

In the first of the two deals, Railtrack is to sell its core business Railtrack plc, which owns and operates the UK's rail infrastructure, to Network Rail, a newly-created not-for-profit company, for £500m (€774m).