By Helia Ebrahimi and Alistair Osborne Published: 7:38AM BST 16 Oct 2009  Private equity group CVC and the Cosmen family, which sold its Spanish bus business to National Express in 2006, faced a number of hurdles, including the £1bn-£1.2bn needed debt package, which together made the deal unworkable for a return of more than two times.  The takeover panel had given a put up or shut up date for today and it was expected that the deadline be extended for another two weeks.  However, this week advisers went back to Stagecoach – which had been expected to buy National Express's UK rail and bus businesses following the deal, as well as to private equity house CVC and the Cosmen family themselves and asked them to come back with their absolute bottom line. When the three parties came back during the course of yesterday it became apparent that the group still would not be able to make the 500p a share bid.  National Express said today that it will seek to raise cash from investors to strengthen its financial position in a move that will be supported by the Cosmen family, who already own 18.5pc of the rail operator.  Best known for its network of coaches around Britain, National Express said that it is now talking to its major shareholders about raising more cash.  The Cosmen family had given that undertaking when they first teamed up with CVC. They will now be expected to take up their rights within a certain time period for the £300m-plus Capital raising.  The National Express board demanded the rights issue commitment before allowing the Cosmens and CVC – to conduct due diligence for their offer.  The undertaking from the Cosmens – National Express' biggest shareholder – was made in a "comfort" letter to the board.  It was agreed that if the consortium ultimately walked away from an offer, National Express would press ahead with a rights issue in the knowledge that it had the support of the Cosmens.  National Express was left vulnerable to takeover after straining its balance sheet with the £450m acquisition of Spanish bus group Continental Auto and then paying too much for the contract to run the East Coast mainline. It undertook to pay the taxpayer £1.4bn by 2015.  National Express' decision in July to relinquish the contract on the London to Edinburgh line put it on a collision course with the Department for Transport (DfT), which said it would also strip the company of its East Anglia and c2c franchises.  Amid the furore, Richard Bowker – the chief executive responsible for both the Continental and East Coast deals – quit for a new job in Abu Dhabi, leaving chairman John Devaney in executive control. The Cosmens and CVC had planned to break up the company, having agreed to sell its UK rail and bus businesses in a side-deal to transport group Stagecoach.  In a controversial transaction, Stagecoach has agreed to pay the DfT around £100m as a "change of control" tariff to ensure it will not be forced to relinquish the East Anglia and c2c services if it acquires National Express' rail portfolio.
CVC and the Cosmen family have withdrawn their &pound;765m bid for rail and bus    operator company National Express after the consortium could not make the    numbers stack up.