The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and AXA Private Equity have purchased a 55% interest in Keolis, an operator of bus and rail passenger systems based in France, from private equity firm 3i Group.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. SNCF, France’s state-owned railway company, owns the other 45%.

The Caisse and AXA plan to invest approximately $438 million dollars over the next five years to help the company expand.

Keolis operates buses and trains on behalf of transport authorities in seven European countries and Quebec. To comment on this story email craig.sebastiano@rci.rogers.com.